I woke up this morning to my sweet Superhero #2 calling for me. So we played a little on his car mat with him explaining types of cars to me while the oven heated. Next, he helped me make two new muffin creations using coconut flour. I have to admit, coconut flour has not been my favorite flour of choice. So if you're like me and don't like the texture of coconut baked goods, you may want to consider these recipes. I made pineapple-coconut muffins and mini blueberry muffins with my boy. They were so good and everyone devoured them as soon as they cooled. The pineapple ones reminded me of pineapple upside down cake. Both were from two of my favorite food blogs on whole food eating...Elana's Pantry had the blueberry muffins and The Nourishing Home had the Pineapple-Coconut muffins.
I did adapt both recipes some. With the blueberry muffins I used melted coconut oil and grade b maple syrup instead of the grapeseed oil and agave nectar. Coconut oil is a natural anti-inflammatory, big in "healthy fats", anti-microbial, adds moisture to baked goods, and the list goes on and on. I replaced the butter in the Pineapple-coconut muffins with melted coconut oil and then used lactose free whole milk that I had in the fridge since I didn't have any kefir or yogurt. Some of us have dairy allergies here so I try to limit it as much as possible. I'm not against dairy...just against my reaction to it.
After that we left for soccer and I met a friend to go whole food grocery shopping. She is overhauling her family's eating and feeling a bit overwhelmed. So we met at a local health food store, traveled to Costco and introduced her to the corporate wonderland there and then parted ways for me to complete my shopping.
I arrived home to hungry kids and a Handsome Hubby who needed food for his wild turkey hunting trip this weekend. So...I put on my cooking hat (figuratively) and started cleaning up from breakfast. Then I made a bean salad for him with my own recipe.
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| Huge bowl of Greek Bean salad...ready for the road |
Greek Bean Salad
2 cans white canellini beans (rinsed and drained)
1 cup chopped pepperocini
1 cup chopped kalamata olives
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
grape tomatoes (if you have them...I didn't today)
feta cheese to taste
Mix above ingredients together and enjoy! It's so tasty! High in carbs but when he's out hiking all day he needs them and burns through them. He is meeting a hunting buddy so I made a HUGE bowl today. All of the ingredients above are approximate. Honestly...I just dump things in and taste until it seems right.
While I was chopping things up for that I started making my "secret spaghetti sauce". It's really not a secret...it's natural sweet Italian sausage from the local health food supermarket that I bake and grind up in my food processor. Next I found that the Kirkland brand spaghetti sauce has no added sugar or junk and as a bonus...IT'S CHEAP! So I pour the 3 jars of that with my 3 pounds of sausage and we're set for spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, and breadsticks. I sent a bag of mung bean noodles with him and some sauce so BAM another meal done.
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| Secret Spaghetti Sauce |
Secret Spaghetti Sauce
3 lbs Italian sausage
3 jars Kirkland Marinara Sauce
Bake sweet Italian sausage at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Cut links in "chunks" and grind in food processor. You'll have to do several small batches. Place ground sausage into large stockpot with the marinara sauce. Simmer for 20-30 minutes and enjoy!
So with the dishwasher running and the counter still a mess I decided to throw some laundry in and cook more! I'm crazy I know. I made some turkey sliders for him to take and for us to eat while he's gone. It's a favorite recipe from The Food Network and while it does include cheese I just try to limit how much I eat. Here's the link if you're interested...unfortunately I didn't get pics of these.
Then with Superhero #1 celebrating his birthday at school on Monday and us having a busy day at church tomorrow I decided to do the unthinkable...bake more! They had to be nut free but coconut flour was ok. So I made two different coconut flour recipes. One is for a white cupcake with a maple buttercream frosting. The recipe may look intimidating but trust me...it's worth it. My son always wants chocolate cake and this one was his favorite. It came from the website Deliciously Organic. She has wonderful information on how she healed Hashimoto's disease by eating whole foods.
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| Blueberry muffins, Pineapple coconut muffins, White cupcake with maple buttercream frosting and Chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting |
The second was from Elana's Pantry. I think she must live in the kitchen because she always has so many incredible recipes and this one hit the mark again. I did exchange melted coconut oil for the grapeseed again and used honey instead of the agave nectar. My husband loved these the best and I honestly don't know what I like more. I used some of the whipped buttercream from the white cupcakes and mixed it with the chocolate ganache type frosting that I had and it made a light fluffy chocolate buttercream.
In the midst of all this Superhero #2 played with water on the floor next to me showing me how to pour things, blow bubbles with straws, measure marbles in the cup with water, and many other things. I had to experiment on and off as well and that area on the kitchen floor is SO clean. He also saw fit to experiment with how well marbles roll on the wood floor. He was very successful with that endeavor too.
Some playdough and Hot Wheels cars later I am finally sitting. WHAT A DAY! But you know what? Tomorrow I can relax a bit more and there are enough leftovers frozen and saved in the fridge that I don't have to cook at all while Handsome Hubby is gone. Maybe you can all pray with me that he gets his turkey the first morning and comes home early like last year! Enjoy the recipes...I just wouldn't recommend making them all in one day!
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