Wednesday, December 31, 2014

How to Make Zucchini Spaghetti with a Mandolin

Here at Eat Thrive Heal, we're all about healing with food.  Since most diseases are associated with inflammation in the body, we're eating to reduce inflammation, which means that we eat the foods that are anti-inflammatory and we avoid the foods that are inflammatory.  (See the green box below for a list of many of the diseases caused by inflammation.)

As it turns out, an anti-inflammation diet means gluten-free.  So, as much as we love it, wheat pasta is out.

What options do we have to replace it?  There are some acceptable gluten-free pastas available, of course, particularly those made from quinoa (available at most health food stores or Whole Foods).  We also like using spaghetti squash--just roast it up and scrape out the spaghetti shaped strands (see here for recipe).  One other really great choice is to use noodles cut from vegetables.

Zucchini is the perfect vegetable to make "noodles" from.

Special "noodle" cutting tools for vegetables.  Mandolin on the left, Veggetti above on the right, and a protective chainmail safety glove in the forefront.  

Zucchini "noodles" cut on a mandolin.  
In the following video, our very own, Chef Hallie, demonstrates how easy it is to make zucchini "noodles" on a mandolin.


You can find a mandolin in most cooking supply stores or order one online.  They run between $20 and $40.  Importantly, be sure to get yourself a chainmail safety glove.  These run from about $15 to over $100 if you buy a steel glove, which is really not necessary. Having a glove, however, is essential to using a mandolin quickly and easily.  If you have one, you'll feel like using the mandolin often, if you don't, you won't.

There is also an easy to use affordable new tool called the Veggetti.  In the video below, Chef Hallie demonstrates easy curly noodle making with the Veggetti. 



Cook the zucchini "noodles" in a little butter or olive oil in a saute pan.  
Important--  Once you have your noodles, do not cook them in boiling water like regular pasta or you'll end up with limp, soggy, water-logged noodles.  Instead, heat a little grass-fed butter or olive oil in a saute pan and put the noodles in to cook for just two or three minutes until the veggies are tender.  

Veggie pastas taste great with traditional tomato-based sauces, pestos or butter and just about any other sauce usually used on pasta.  They toss up beautifully with other veggies, olives, chicken, salmon and most other traditional pasta ingredients.  In fact, you can pretty much just substitute them in almost any of your favorite pasta recipes.

Zucchini pasta sauteed in pastured butter with peas, minced fresh shallot and kalamata olives.  Season with Italian herb mix, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.




Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Surrounded by Lemon Lovers

"That's all very nice and good", they said when we created our delicious Christmas cake with not just one, but two, terrific chocolate frosting choices.  "Now... where's the lemon cake?"

"And make it very lemony please!"

It seems we're surrounded by lemon lovers.  So we rolled up our sleeves and set to work.  And what we came up with is an adapted lemony version of our yellow cake with a wonderful fluffy extra-lemony frosting.

Of course, this cake is gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, soy free and corn free.  And if you make a few of our adaptations, it's dairy free, too.  (For information about eating or not eating dairy, see here.) 

But the best part about this cake is that it tastes great.  It's good enough for company.  




 Favorite Yellow Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1 C Coconut flour
1 C Arrowroot starch
1 C Irish pastured butter (plus extra for coating the pans) softened at room temperature, or use coconut oil for a dairy-free cake
½ C Coconut Crystals
¼ C Coconut Nectar
2 T Stevia
2 T Xylitol
1 C Almond Milk
8 Pastured eggs, separated
1/2 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 t Cream of tartar
1 t Sea Salt
1 t Baking soda

Coat a bundt or large ring pan with butter or coconut oil. In a mixer bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tartar.  Beat on high speed until whites form stiff peaks.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter (or coconut oil) with the Coconut Crystals, Coconut Nectar, Stevia and Xylitol until fluffy and light colored.  In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, lemon juice, and egg yolks until completely combined.  In a separate bowl, sift together the coconut flour, arrowroot, baking soda and salt.  Add half of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture and beat again until fluffy, scraping the bowl with a spatula as necessary.  Add the milk mixture and the remainder of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixing bowl and beat again. 

Spoon half of the egg white mixture into the center of the mixing bowl and stir gently with a spatula to combine.  Add the remainder of the egg whites to the mixing bowl and gently fold the mixture together with the rubber spatula, folding from the outer edge down under and up to the center of the bowl until just mixed.  

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in the pre-heated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center removes cleanly.  Cool for 15 minutes, run a knife along the outer edges and invert onto a cooling rack.  Cool completely before frosting.

Cupcakes-- This recipe will make 24 cupcakes.  Bake for 20 minutes.



Very Lemony Fluffy Lemon Frosting

1 c palm shortening 
4 T arrowroot powder
2 T stevia
5 T xylitol
Zest from 2 good sized lemons
4 T lemon juice
3 drops yellow food coloring
4 T melted butter or coconut oil

Put all ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl and beat until thoroughly blended.  Drizzle in warm butter while continuing to beat on highest speed until mixture is fluffy.





For a discussion on how often we should be eating cake on a healing diet and carb count for this and our Christmas cake, see here.  

Click here for the recipe for our Christmas cake.  



Monday, December 29, 2014

Snack Attack Series--Sauteed apples

Seasonal Snacks--Winter



Sauteed apples are one of my all-time favorite healthy snacks.  Just the delicious warm apple-y fragrance wafting through the house as they saute on the stove is one of the best possible cooking aromas ever--just like mom's apple pie!

Ummmmm.. heavenly smell!!!

Sauteed apples are great warm and right out of the pot.  However, there are so many other delicious ways to serve them.  I love crunch, so I like to top them with chopped walnuts or pecans.

They are also great as a topper for yogurt.  Here at Eat Thrive Heal, we're always avoiding inflammation causing ingredients, so we don't recommend cow's milk yogurt or ice cream, unless you make your own from raw milk (see here for our instructions for making home-made raw milk yogurt.)  However, if you don't have dairy allergies or intolerances, you can grab a little carton of organic goat's milk yogurt (anti-inflammation) for a quickie snack with your apples.  We also love the coconut milk yogurt by So Delicious, and their brand new introduction, almond milk yogurt.  And just today I discovered a new coconut yogurt by the brand Coconut Grove which is sweetened with coconut crystals--delicious!  All these yogurt choices disappear faster than I can buy them in my fridge! (For a complete explanation of what dairy you might eat and why, see here.)

If you love your ice cream, sauteed apples would also be a delicious topping for sugar-free coconut ice cream by Coconut Secret or home-made frozen yogurt (made from raw cow's milk, goats milk, coconut milk or almond milk, of course!)

Another wonderful way to enjoy sauteed apples is as a spread over gluten-free pancakes, waffles, french toast or bread.  The next time you make any of these, make of a few extra and keep them in the fridge where you can pull them out as needed for easy snacking.  As for bread, sauteed apples would be delicious as a topping with our seed bread.


Sauteed Apples  

7 apples, peeled cored and sliced
3 T butter from grass-fed cows  (only grass-fed cows are high in inflammation-fighting omega-3's)
1 T coconut oil
A pinch or two of cinnamon
A generous few turns of the nutmeg grinder
1-2 T Coconut Nectar as needed, depending on how tart the apples are
1-2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice to taste

Melt the butter and coconut oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat and add the apples.  Saute and stir regularly until apples are tender and slightly caramelized.  When you are not stirring, cover the pan so that the juices do not escape.  Season with cinnamon, nutmeg, Coconut Nectar and lemon juice to taste.  How much Coconut Nectar and lemon juice you use will depend on the natural tartness of the apples.


Seasonal Snack Attack Series--  One of the biggest challenges in sticking to a healing anti-inflammation diet is figuring out what to eat during those times when you feel hungry between meals.  Having a plan in place before hunger strikes is essential.  That's what this snack attack series is all about.  Over time, we hope the snack ideas will grow to become a rich full file and a useful tool that you can use to stock your kitchen with delicious healing snacks that keep your tummy feeling full, your waistline trim and your body humming!  We're just getting started, but to see the snacks we've included so far, click here. 



Saturday, December 27, 2014

Asian Chicken Soup with Shiitake and Zucchini "Noodles"

A wonderful warming treat if you're feeling a little under the weather.  Or not!!



Often Asian soups have noodles, but in this soup, the noodles have been replaced with zucchini "noodles".  This keeps the soup gluten-free, of course, great for anyone watching inflammation or healing eczema.  But the zucchini "noodles" are also pretty, colorful and tasty.  To make them, I use a mandolin and a protective chainmail glove, but you can always slice them up with a kitchen knife or try the Veggetti which makes them by twisting the zucchini through a spiral device with blades.

Mandolin, protective chainmail glove and veggetti device.




Asian Chicken Soup with Shiitake and Zucchini "Noodles"

2 32 oz cartons organic chicken stock  (I am preferring Trader Joe's organic free range these days,  it has good flavor and at $1.99 per carton is a bargain, too.  Or even better, make your own, see here).
1/2 c sherry
3 T dark sesame oil
3 large garlic cloves minced
1 2" piece of fresh ginger minced
4 T butter (grass-fed organic)
2 T olive oil
3 oz shiitake mushrooms sliced, stems removed
10 oz crimini mushrooms sliced
10 oz white mushrooms sliced
Generous freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
4 organic boneless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
4 zucchini sliced on a mandolin into "noodles"
8 green onions sliced

Add the chicken stock to a large stock pot and bring to a boil.  Add in the sherry, sesame, garlic and ginger and lower the stock to a simmer.  In a frying pan, over medium-high heat, bring the butter and olive oil to hot and add in the mushrooms in batches, frying until tender and adding to the soup.  Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.  Add in the chicken pieces.  When chicken is a few minutes from being done add in the zucchini and green onions.  Serve the soup as soon as the zucchini "noodles" are tender and the chicken is cooked through.

This soup is great on its own and doesn't need anything more.  However, if you're feeding hungry hoards, consider adding a pot of rice on the side, or perhaps a generous fresh salad.  Perhaps fresh spinach with tangerines, peanuts, bean sprouts and Asian salad dressing would be nice.  (I have always loved the Soy Vay Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing.)

By the way, I'm trying to get in the habit of pulling out the mandolin or Veggetti frequently.  So many vegetables can be cut and served into "noodles" and kids really like these.  If you don't want to take your family cold turkey, consider boiling up some quinoa spaghetti and tossing it half and half with zucchini "noodles" while your family gets used to them.

A 15 minute easy meal of zucchini noodles prepared on a Veggetti along with bottled organic red sauce and organic Italian sausages.  Just put the freshly cut zucchini noodles into a small pan with a little gently sizzling butter or olive oil and cook stirring occasionally for a minute or two until noodles are tender.  Fresh, quick and healthy!
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Friday, December 26, 2014

Leftover Prime Rib? Try Sweet Potato Hash

We had quite a bit of prime rib left over a few days ago after an early Christmas celebration.  Since I had purchased a bag of organic sweet potatoes and had a few of those leftover, too, I decided to make a sweet potato and prime rib hash.  Then I fried up some eggs and served them on top.  Everyone loved it.

This makes a great brunch.

Or serve it up for dinner with a great big salad with lots of super greens, dried cranberries, mandarin orange slices and pine nuts. For the dressing, try this:  Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (1 T), olive oil (3 T), Dijon (1 t), freshly ground sea salt and black pepper and a minced fresh shallot.

Sweet Potato and Prime Rib Hash with Fried Eggs 


Here's how I made it:

Peel several sweet potatoes and cut into dice.  In a large frying pan melt several tablespoons of grass-fed butter along with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Heat butter and oil over medium heat until hot and just beginning to bubble.  Add in sweet potatoes and begin frying, stirring regularly.  Once potatoes have browned, add 1 cup of water to the pan and allow potatoes to steam while water cooks out. Season with generous freshly ground sea salt and black pepper.  Add 1-2 t Italian Herbs.  If prime rib is not already well seasoned, sprinkle potato mixture with garlic and onion salts.



When potatoes are almost cooked, fry grass-fed eggs in a separate frying pan in generous grass-fed butter and olive oil.  Season with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper.

When potatoes are just cooked and ready to eat, add in diced prime rib.  Cook stirring until beef is just warmed.  Do not over-cook.  To serve, top each plate with a fried egg or two.

Note:  Our prime rib had been so beautifully and generously seasoned that I did not add much seasoning to the hash.  Add what you need to make the hash flavorful.

Amanda rubbing our rib roast with a dry rub made with many dried herbs plus lots of fresh rosemary and pressing in garlic slivers where little slits have been made with a sharp knife.  
 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

I'm Cooking with Gordon Ramsay's Christmas Video

A number of years ago I made Chef Gordon Ramsay's Christmas ham with pear and saffron chutney along with his pumpkin and wild mushroom soup from this beautiful video.  My family loved it and requested it often thereafter.  My plans are to make it all tomorrow on Christmas day.  If you're looking for a beautiful dinner, I couldn't recommend anything more highly than this one.


By the way, I'll be replacing the demerol sugar that Ramsay uses with Coconut Crystals and the honey with Coconut Nectar.  I know it will still be delicious like this.


We already had one family celebration last weekend and we served a classic rib roast, yorkshire pudding, mashed sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts with bacon and Dijon and a gorgeous pear tart.  It was all wonderful and I've been enjoying the leftovers for several days now.  

Amanda is rubbing the roast with rosemary and other dry herbs and inserting slices of raw garlic into  little cuts in the surface of the roast she has made with a knife.  
Leftover mashed sweet potatoes.  Delicious!  We simply peeled and boiled the sweet potatoes then mashed them with grass fed butter, sea salt and black pepper and drizzled in a little organic cream.  They tasted like dessert.


An amazing pear tart recipe I have loved for years from Martha Stewart's book, Pies and Tarts.  Replace the crust with our einkorn crust recipe or with the paleo crust recipe from our pecan pie and change out the sugar for Coconut Nectar and a little stevia.  

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Snack Attack Series-- Leftover Cranberries on our Favorite Seed Bread

Seasonal Snacks--Winter

When you're working at healing or preventing disease with foods, it's so very important to plan your meals carefully, of course.  But, it's also equally important to keep plenty of healthy snack foods on hand so that there's always something healing to grab whenever hunger strikes.

One filling and healthy snack that we love is our Seed Bread.  It's delicious on it's own or simply slathered in grass-fed butter or nut butter.  But add a little something sweet on top, like sugar-free jam, or in this case, leftover holiday cranberries, and our seed bread goes from yummy to sensational!


You can find the recipe for our seed bread, here.  





For easy, healthy sugar-free cranberries:


Quick Sugar-Free Cranberries

1 bag cranberries
2 apples peeled and chopped
Juice of three mandarins
1 T zest of mandarin peel
1 T Stevia
¼ C Coconut nectar


Put all of the ingredients into a sauce pot over medium heat.  Cook stirring occasionally until apples are tender. 


Seed bread with sugar-free jam and grass-fed butter.  Click here to get to the recipe. 


Seasonal Snack Attack Series--  It seems that one of the biggest challenges in sticking to a healing anti-inflammation diet is figuring out what to eat during those times when you feel hungry between meals.  Having a plan in place before hunger strikes is essential.  That's what this series is all about.  Over time, we hope the snack ideas will grow to become a rich full file and a useful tool that you can use to stock your kitchen with delicious healing snacks that keep your tummy feeling full, your waistline trim and your body humming!  We're just getting started, but to see the snacks we've included so far, click here. 


Monday, December 22, 2014

Cake for Christmas...and it's Gluten-free, Grain-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free and Soy-free

Okay, so we're on a healing diet. That's great...we're putting our health and healing first.

That doesn't mean we wouldn't love a slice of cake for Christmas!

Good news.  Here's a beautiful cake with a moist, delicate spongy texture that will hold its shape for making layer cakes.  It's rich and satisfying without being too sweet.  And, importantly, it's good enough for company, which makes it an ideal holiday cake.

Best of all, this cake has no gluten or grains, soy or sugar.  Butter can be replaced with coconut oil, and milk can be replaced with almond milk for the dairy free version.  There's nothing in this cake that will monkey with your healing lifestyle.  So go ahead and enjoy a slice.  

Let's talk  frosting.  It's taken us awhile to develop sugar-free recipes for gooey, yummy, sweet satisfying frosting, but we're finally feeling that our frosting is really good.  We've included two chocolate frosting recipes below.  One is the gorgeous dense and chocolate-y Richmond frosting you see on the cake shown.  The second is a fluffy, airy, yummy concoction similar to the type of frosting you might find on cupcakes at a fancy cupcake store.  Choose your weapon!!  


Favorite Yellow Cake with Richmond Chocolate Frosting

 Favorite Yellow Cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1 C Coconut flour
1 C Arrowroot starch
1 C Irish pastured butter (plus extra for coating the pans) softened at room temperature
½ C Coconut Crystals
¼ C Coconut Nectar
2 T Stevia
2 T Xylitol
1 C Almond Milk
8 Pastured eggs, separated
1 t Vanilla
2 t Cream of tartar
1 t Sea Salt
1 t Baking soda

Coat 2- 9” cake pans with butter, line bottom with parchment and coat parchment with butter. In a mixer bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tartar.  Beat on high speed until whites form stiff peaks.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the Coconut Crystals, Coconut Nectar, Stevia and Xylitol until fluffy and light colored.  In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, vanilla, and egg yolks until completely combined.  In a separate bowl, sift together the coconut flour, arrowroot, baking soda and salt.  Add half of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture and beat again until fluffy, scraping the bowl with a spatula as necessary.  Add the milk mixture and the remainder of the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixing bowl and beat again.  

Spoon half of the egg white mixture into the center of the mixing bowl and stir gently with a spatula to combine.  Add the remainder of the egg whites to the mixing bowl and gently fold the mixture together with the rubber spatula, folding from the outer edge down under and up to the center of the bowl until just mixed.   

Spoon half of the mixture into each of the prepared pans.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in the pre-heated oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center removes cleanly.  Cool for 15 minutes, run a knife along the outer edges and invert onto a cooling rack.  Cool completely before frosting.  Frost with Richmond Chocolate Frosting and garnish with Raspberries and a frosting of Xylitol crystals.



Richmond Chocolate Frosting-- 


Richmond Chocolate Frosting (Grain-Free Sugar-Free Version)

This is a very dark, rich and creamy frosting for chocolate lovers.

Ingredients
1 C Raw organic cacao butter (Cacao butter comes in chunks, so I measure using displacement method in a glass measuring cup.  I add two cups of water and then chunks of cacao until the total volume is 3 cups. Drain the water.)
8 oz. Unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped into pieces
½ C Almond butter
6 T Grass Fed Butter
½ C Coconut Crystals
½ C Coconut Nectar
4 T Stevia
3 T Xylitol
2 C Arrowroot Starch
2 t Vanilla
½ C Organic Heavy Cream

In a double boiler over medium heat, add the cacao butter, chocolate, almond butter, and butter.  Stir as ingredients melt.  Add the Coconut Crystals, Coconut Nectar, Stevia and Xylitol.  Stir until the crystals melt.  Turn off the heat but keep on warm stove top.  Stirring, add the arrowroot starch a small amount at a time until the entire amount is absorbed the mixture is shiny (the oil is a little separated).  Stir in vanilla.  Add the organic heavy cream in small amounts, beating with a beater after each addition.  Beat until the mixture is shiny, smooth and the cream is fully absorbed.  Makes about four cups or enough to frost a three layer cake.  Frost the cake when the frosting is still warm, and place in a cool spot so frosting becomes firmer. 





Fluffy Chocolate Frosting--  We've been working hard on developing some good frosting recipes lately. If you're in the mood for a light and fluffy chocolate frosting, the kind you might get on a cupcake from a fancy cupcake store, here's our sugar-free, dairy-free, grain-free option.  It's delicious and the texture is perfect.  



Fluffy Chocolate Frosting
1 c palm shortening
3 T Coconut Nectar
1 ½ t powdered stevia  (We use Trader Joe's Powdered Stevia for baking.)
6 T arrowroot flour
2 t vanilla
¼ t salt
4 T cocoa powder unsweetened
4 T cocoa butter melted but cooled to slightly warm

Put all ingredients except cocoa butter in a mixer with a paddle blade and mix.  Drizzle warm cocoa butter into mixer with blade running and whip until mixture is fluffy.  This frosting will freeze beautifully.  After defrosting, whip again until texture is fluffy.  


Should you eat cake everyday?  We don't recommend that you eat these kinds of desserts every day. Even though the wheat and sugar you find in a regular cake has been removed, there are arrowroot and coconut sugar in this recipe, which does raise the carb count somewhat.  Overall, this cake has a much lower carb count than a regular cake which makes it a significantly healthier choice.  Like many good things in life, just be smart and keep it in moderation.

On a daily basis, we prefer to eat healthy, natural, sugarless foods, of course.   However, there are occasions likes birthdays, Christmas and summer pool parties where it's important that we do not feel like we are missing out.  And this is even more important if we are preparing special diets for children. The goal is to eat the highest quality and most healing foods as often as possible while giving ourselves permission to mix in an occasion "treat" so that life feels normal and satisfying.   
   
By the way, the higher fiber, protein and fat content in our converted dessert recipes definitely ups the healing factor.  The fat and protein slow the sugar from entering the bloodstream as rapidly.

We thought you might be curious to see a comparison of total carb count for our adapted yellow cake  recipe vs a standard yellow cake recipe.  As you can see, our cake comes out at half the carbs.


Yellow Cake
Carbs (Total – Fiber)
Our Yellow Cake
Carbs (Total – Fiber)
3 cups sifted cake flour
285
1 C Coconut flour
24 G
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
0
1 C Arrowroot starch
108 G
1/2 teaspoons salt
0
1 C Irish pastured butter (plus extra for coating the pans) softened at room temperature
0
1 3/4 cups sugar
350
½ C Coconut Crystals
96
2/3 cup butter or margarine
0
¼ C Coconut Nectar
52
2 eggs
0
2 T Stevia
0
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
0
2 T Xylitol
24
1 1/4 cups whole milk
16
1 C Unsweetened Almond Milk
0


8 Pastured eggs, separated
0


1 t Vanilla
0


2 t Cream of tartar
2


1 t Sea Salt
0


1 t Baking soda
0




Total carbs
651

306




"The fat's going down, the sugar's going up, and we're all getting sick." 

And finally, this is an 11-minute edited video of a 90 minute lecture by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MC, UCSF, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, on the subject of the damage that consumption of sugary foods will do to the body.  To see the original version, click here.  



Sunday, December 21, 2014

Two Sugar-free and Low-Gluten or Gluten-free Pecan Pies



Over the Thanksgiving holidays, we had several yummy, healing pecan pies.  I thought I'd share the recipes with you today just in case you might like to serve a pecan pie for Christmas dinner.  

Pecan Pie Number 1 --  The first was a paleo pecan pie that our guest, Amanda, brought.  We did not tell anyone that they were eating a paleo pie.  The pie got lots of compliments and everyone really loved it. No one had any idea whatsoever that it was made without sugar, flour, dairy or soy.  And the crust was quite good, unlike many wheat-free crusts.




This pecan pie is sweetened with honey, as are many paleo desserts.  Personally, I prefer to use Coconut Nectar over honey because of its lower glycemic index.  As a pre-diabetic, I feel it when I eat sugar, agave, honey and maple syrup.  However, I find that I can eat Coconut Nectar and not feel my blood sugar spike at all, so I prefer it over all other non-sugar sweeteners. Honey is a 55 on the glycemic index while coconut nectar is a 35. 

Remember, too, that if your blood sugar is spiking, you're creating inflammation in your body. Inflammation is tied to many serious diseases (see blue box below.)  Plus, when your blood sugar increases, your body creates more insulin, and that is not a good thing.  High blood insulin provokes visceral fat accumulation.  I don't know about you, but I'd definitely like to avoid adding any visceral fat! 

For more information about honey, see here.   

I think I would adapt this recipe by replacing the honey with 2/3 c Coconut Nectar.  I'll probably make it for Christmas Day and that's what I'll do with it.  I'll let you know how that goes.

The recipe came from Nature's Knockout.

Crust:
3/4 c tapioca starch
3/4 c almond flour
2 T coconut sugar
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 c coconut oil
4-5 T filtered water

Filling:
3 eggs, grass-fed, organic
1/2 c raw honey
3/4 c coconut sugar
3 T coconut oil
pinch sea salt
2 c pecan halves

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust:  Stir together crust ingredients except the oil and water.  Add oil using a pastry blender.  Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until dough forms into a ball.  Roll out on a well (GF) floured surface.  Place in a pie pan and shape it real cute.  Refrigerate.

Sauce:  Stir together all of the sauce ingredients with a spoon.  Remove the pie shell from the refrigerator and place the sauce into it.  For safety, place a large cookie sheet under the pan as it cooks, in case of spill-over. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  This pie needs to be cooled and refrigerated 2 hours prior to serving.  That kinda thickens it and makes it so authentically amazing.  Store in the refrigerator.    

Pecan Pie Number 2 --  The following day we had a second sugar-free pecan pie made by my sister. She used our recipe for low-gluten pie crust made from ancient grain einkorn flour.  This makes a tasty crust that seems much like real pie crust made from regular flour.  Her pie was sweetened with dates and Coconut Nectar.







Pecan Pie Filling
3/4 stick unsalted grass-fed butter, melted
6 pitted dates
3/4 cup Coconut Nectar
2 t pure vanilla extract
1/4 t salt
3 large eggs pasture-raised
2 c pecan halves (1/2 pound)

Combine all of the ingredients into a blender or vitamix and blend until smooth and creamy.  Place pecans in bottom of unbaked pie crust.  Pour filling over pecans.  Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

For the einkorn crust (double crust):
4-1/2 c Einkorn flour
2 t sea salt
12 oz unsalted grass-fed butter, chilled, cut in small pieces
1/2 c ice water
2 T vodka

Hand Method--Whisk flour and salt.  Rub or cut bits of butter into flour until it looks like sand. Sprinkle vodka and water over.  Combine into a thick ball barely holding together, adding water as needed.  Shape into a flat circle and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill 30 minutes before rolling out.

Food Processor Method-- Put 2 1/2 cups of flour, salt and butter into the bowl of a food processor and pulse ten times.  Add remaining 2 cups of flour and pulse 5 times.  Add the liquid 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing for 1 second between each tablespoon.  Combine into two balls barely holding together, adding water if needed.  Shape into flat circles and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill 30 minutes before rolling out.

Roll dough into 10 inch rounds, 1/4 inch thick, and place in a 9 inch pie plate lined with parchment paper and pie weights.  Crimp edges.  Chill 20 minutes.  Bake in a 300 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Remove parchment and weights.  Bake 10 more minutes until pie dough is just cooked but not browned.    



By the way, our recipe for pumpkin pie is here.    It's sugar-free, low gluten and extremely tasty!

Happy pie making and Merry Christmas, everyone.