Nature Dyed Easter Eggs

It's a little late to be posting pics and how-to's for dyeing Easter eggs with natural ingredients, I know. But I'm a little late for everything so really, this is just how it is. You could use this technique for dyeing all sorts of other things like silks, wool, food, etc. :)

This cup has water, a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of turmeric in it that has been boiled for a few minutes. I should have let it boil longer until the turmeric dissolved but we were in a hurry. And it washed off so not a big deal!

 This dye was made using the same method above but instead of powdered turmeric, I used a handful of frozen blackberries. Just strain before using.

 This cup of dye was made with beet root powder. You could use cut up beet pieces but I happened to have some beet root powder so I used that!

 Sophie liked colouring on her egg before putting it in the dye bath!

And here's the finished Easter eggs!

I enjoy using natural materials to dye our eggs with over the chemical filled dyes you can get at the grocery store and I felt better about my kids eating the eggs afterwards. But you don't get the instant satisfaction that you get with the store bought stuff... these sat in the fridge overnight to get this colour. It probably didn't need quite that long (an hour or two would have worked) but I kinda forgot about them. :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake and Poor Man's Dulce de Leche

We hosted Christmas Day dinner again this year and were in charge of cooking the turkey (which was our first year of doing a local free range bird... so freakin' good. We'll never go back to factory farmed turkey again) as well as the dessert. Being that Parker is avoiding gluten (although we've slipped up on that quite a bit lately and have noticed the effects) I wanted to create a dessert that he could have and one that everyone would enjoy.

I've seen lots of flourless chocolate cakes before but it just didn't sound that good to me so I've never made them. But I was so wrong, this cake was so good that I'm wondering why anyone would ever put flour in cake again! It's creamy... almost like a mousse/brownie combo. Then top it off with a homemade caramel sauce and you've got one kick-ass dessert that any celiac or anyone else would love!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
18 squares of semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup butter
3 whole eggs
3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 300F and line a springform pan with parchment. Butter up the sides and parchment. Cover the whole outside with two layers of foil and set aside.
In a saucepan, combine sugar and water together until dissolved. Set aside.
Melt chocolate squares and mix in butter. Beat in sugar water, add vanilla and add eggs one at a time.
Pour batter into pan and place cake pan into a larger pan (I used a roasting pan). Fill larger pan with boiling water until it comes halfway up the side of the springform pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes and then chill overnight.
You'll need to use a wet knife to loosen the edges of the cake before inverting it over a plate to serve.

Poor Man's Dulce de Leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk, label removed.

Bring a full pot of water to boil (make sure this pot is big enough so that when the can of condensed milk is placed in it, the entire can will be submerged). Turn down heat to medium and place in can of condensed milk. Allow to simmer for 3 hours, checking on it regularly to be sure that the can is fully submerged, adding water as needed. After the 3 hours, turn off heat but leave the pot on the element and the milk in the pot. When the water is cool, remove can. Open the can and voila: a yummy dessert topper!
*****Please be aware that this isn't the safest thing to make. Cans have been known to explode causing damage to cooks and to kitchens. I think the trick is to make sure the can is always FULLY submerged but use caution when making this!!!******

Homemade Vanilla Extract and Peppermint Extract

This year as part of everyone's Christmas gift I made extracts. Before this I never really put thought into the commercially bought extracts and was never concerned with using them. Ummm... yeah, that's totally changed since then. The commercially bought crap from your local stores are filled with artificial everything: colour and flavour. Not only is that not good for you (hello petroleum products!) but making the real stuff is a trillion times tastier and it's super easy to boot. AND most extracts are not gluten free... making your own with wheat free vodka ensures this is safe for the celiac in your life! Here's what I did:

For the peppermint extract I grabbed a big handful of peppermint I had growing in the backyard. Muddle it a bit to release some of the yummy peppermint oil then put in a large canning jar (or clean peanut butter jar, etc). Fill to the top with a high grade vodka making sure all the peppermint leaves are covered. Not covering the leaves can cause them to spoil, ruining your whole batch! Place in a cool dark place (my pantry) and give it a gentle shake when you remember, I tried to do it everyday. After about 8 weeks or so, strain the leaves out and put in smaller bottles or leave in the original jar. That's it!

For the vanilla extract, I used 6 vanilla beans and opened them up to expose the delicious seeds. Try to buy as high quality as you can afford and make sure they're fresh, they shouldn't snap! They should be bendy and a bit moist. Put in a large canning jar (or again reuse a pb jar) and cover with alcohol. I used two cups of vodka and an ounce or two of bourbon. Same thing with the peppermint extract, store in a cool dark place and give it a gentle shake daily for 8 weeks or so. When I poured the vanilla extract into smaller bottles, I also added half a vanilla bean to each jar. That way they can add vodka to it as they use it to keep it going for a while.

Bliss is right!

I've died and gone straight to ice cream heaven. Try this coconut milk ice cream from Luna and Larry's and you too can be in coconut bliss. :)

Meal Plan Nov. 16-22

I used to post about our meal plan for the week and then that just sort of fell to the wayside. But I'd like to start again because we've been eating alot of new recipes and I'd like to be able to refer back to things we've eaten.

You'll soon notice that my menu plans are starting on Tuesdays which I know is a weird day to start a menu plan for a new week but Tuesdays in my house are like Mondays in everyone else's. My husband works Tuesday to Saturday so our weekends are Sundays and Mondays.

My meal plans are date specific but I'm very flexible in it and will swap days if I feel like it. I also leave one day a week blank for take-out meals or what we refer to as "fend for yourself" dinners.

So here's this week's meal plan:

Tuesday: Roasted Chicken with quinoa and some sort of sauteed greens.
Wednesday: Buddha Bowl (I love her recipes, they're great for families on a budget!) We stay away from soy in this house so I add cashews instead and make a few other little changes, stay tuned for my version of this yummy recipe!
Thursday: Eggs and Black Bean Salsa.
Friday: Chicken quesidillas.
Saturday: Mushroom Barley Soup
Sunday: leftovers

What's for dinner in your home?

No More Tears!

You know what the worst thing about cutting onions is? The burning eyes and tears. I finally found a way to cut onions without having to leave the room every few seconds: peel them all, cut in half and soak in cold water!

It works, give it a try. Your eyes will thank you! :)

Barber Pole cakes Take 2!

One of my first blog posts written was about my attempt to make my husband (who's a barber) a barberpole birthday cake. It didn't quite turn out, to say the least... I chose a difficult recipe while I had no baking skills. It's been a year and a half since then and I've been baking alot more so I thought I'd give it a go!

My husband owns a barbershop downtown called "That 50s Barbershop" and this past July was his three year anniversary of being open. This was a big deal for us as we started the barbershop with nothing and three years was how long we were willing to keep trying to make this little dream of his go. Well, since opening we've never had to worry about making this a successful shop as it's done so well. At three years, the shop is very successful and I couldn't be prouder of my husband. :)

So.. I wanted to celebrate with some yummy cupcakes! I didn't want to have a big fancy barber pole shaped cake because it was soooo hot out that week and well, I have two very small children at home who need alot of my attention. So cupcakes it was and they were delish!

Since Parker is gluten intolerant, I decided to turn our favourite chocolate cake into a gf cake and it was good! I followed her recipe exactly but cut out the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. I replaced those with Pamela's Ultimate Baking mix (equal to the amounts removed from original recipe, just over 1 3/4 c). Then after icing it with chocolate buttercream icing, I piped on some barber poles! I think it turned out great!

Here's a picture of my husband and Parker having a cupcake in the barbershop. What a silly boy Parky is, whenever I said "look at the camera" he would look up at the ceiling so Dave decided to follow suit. :)

Eggs 101

Does anyone else get confused when looking at the many different varieties in chicken eggs? I used to think eggs were eggs and your only choice was between brown and white. But now there's free range, free run, added omegas, veggie fed, organic, etc.. (and this is just from one company!). In my quest to buy the most ethical eggs, this is what I found for store bought chicken eggs:

Free Range: These are the happiest chickens (imo) as they get to roam around a pasture.
Free Run: While these chickens aren't kept in a cage (most egg laying chickens are), they are still kept in a barn and do not have access to roaming a pasture.
Veggie Fed: Just that... the chickens are fed an all vegetarian diet, no animal by-products.
Organic: Chickens are fed an all organic feed, no hormones, no pesticides and no antibiotics. Organically raised chickens are usually packed less tightly than those given antibiotics but this doesn't mean that they are free range. Most are but check your labels!
Omega 3 eggs: Basically, the chickens are fed lots of flax in their feed which then produces a small amount of omega 3s in the eggs.
White eggs vs. Brown eggs: Chickens with white feathers and ear lobes produce white eggs and chickens with red feathers and ear lobes produce brown eggs. There is no difference in taste or nutirition values but for some reason I always choose brown.

However, the average laying hen is caged up 24 hours per day and lives a horrific life. To learn more about the abuse laying hens go through go to Farm Sanctuary. Also, I've recommended it before but seriously watching Food, Inc. changed my life and how I eat.

The best eggs you can buy are local small farmed eggs. Not only are they the most ethical, they are also the best tasting.

What we've been eating lately...

So with starting a GF diet for Parker, cooking and baking around here has changed big time. You don't realize just how many things have wheat in them until you really look for it.

I've never been one for using mixes or convenience foods but I admit that I've used them more than once this past week or so. I don't know why but I feel intimidated at the thought of doing my own GF friendly baking. There's all sorts of flours that I've never used. I started to branch out last year and tried spelt, aramanth and several others but wheat was still the predominant flour in my recipes. And then there's adding xanthan to breads and muffins that I just have no clue about. Plus it doesn't help that building up a GF friendly pantry for baking from scratch is pricey. So until I have a decent array of flours and I'm less intimidated by it all, yes I will be using mixes!

One mix I quite like is Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix. The pancakes when piping hot are delicious. Like way better than plain boring wheat flour and they're more filling. Parker loved them, he ate 2 1/2 to himself which is 1/2 more than I ate! I bought the mix at Save-on-Foods here in town which actually has a decent GF foods section.

For breakfasts we've been having:

Breakfast Smoothie:

Blend together 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tlbs cocoa powder, 1 tsp honey, 1 tlbs hemp hearts, several ice cubes, 1 tbls peanut butter, 1 tsp probiotic powder, either some spinach or a half scoop of greens plus.

Poached Eggs on a bed of Spinach:

Wilt some spinach in a tsp of olive oil with a crushed garlic clove and some red pepper flakes. Top with a poached egg and serve with GF bread.

Going Gluten Free.

A facebook friend posted a link to the Gluten Free Challenge and I happened to be bored that day so I clicked on her link and had a read through. I was very interested when I read some of the symptoms of gluten intollerance in children and Parker fit several of them.

Since Parker was born, he's always had very mucousy, frequent BMs and horrid diaper rashes. He would poop up to 6 times a day and it would be (tmi warning!) very loose and sometimes even frothy and even if we changed him as soon as he had gone, his poor bum would be so red and irritated, sometimes welts and blisters would be left behind. Parker also has been a very spirited child, always irritable and has always been a bit behind in reaching his milestones (but not enough to warrant therapy of any sort). My dr wasn't concerned: he blamed it on teething, too much fruit, extended breastfeeding, and because even though Parker was slow to meet his milestones he did eventually meet them.

So after reading into Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease, my husband and I decided to go gluten free with him for a month and see if we noticed a difference. And my goodness... it's only been 5 days and already we noticed a HUGE difference!! He's only having one or two normal bms a day as opposed to up to 6 loose and acidic bms a day which has made him less irritable because his little bum isn't burnt raw constantly.

Yesterday was a slip up day though... we went hiking with my SIL and I didn't think we'd be gone for too long so I only packed him a snack and she didn't know we were going gluten free so she packed a pb/banana/honey sandwhich for him. He didn't eat the bread but we gave him the bananas from it and then later on that day I gave him a few of my potato chips not thinking there'd be gluten in there (I later read there was). So today his BMs were loose (not like before though) and his little bum was a bit red. I will definitely be more vigilant from now on, it's hard though as we're learning as we go along.

He has his 2 year check up on Monday and I'll mention this to his doctor and see what he has to say about it all.

Being that I love to cook, it's actually been fun looking up new recipes to try out! The other night I made mushroom soup from Gluten Free Girl which was yummy but cost waaaayyyy too much money to make (we're talking $35 for a pot of soup which is too much imo). She has some other recipes that I've tried and am eager to try as well. Last night we had quinoa salad with smoked salmon which was delicious!