Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Dairy Free Chicken Rice and Broccoli Casserole!


Chicken Broccoli Casserole*

3 cups cooked brown rice**

6 cups cooked diced organic chicken

1 cup grapeseed oil vegannaise

3 cups white sauce (recipe below)

1/8 cup lemon juice

2 -14 oz. bags of organic broccoli (thawed)

1 cup bread crumbs*

Cook rice and chicken, set aside. In the same pan the chicken cooked in, make white sauce:

White sauce

1 half onion, chopped

3 tablespoon grapeseed oil

3 tablespoons tapioca flour

2 cups organic chicken broth*

1 cup plain flavored almond milk

1-2 tsps sea salt, 1tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp pepper

Saute the chopped onion it the oil until tender. Add the flour and cook for about a minute letting it bubble. Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring constantly. Add almond milk. Season with salt, garlic powder and pepper to taste. Adding a clove of garlic with the onions gives the sauce a nice flavor too.

Add vegannaise and lemon juice to white sauce. Grease a 9 x 13 pan using grapeseed oil spray. Add rice to the bottom of the pan and spread out evenly. Next add a layer of broccoli over the top of the rice. Spread half of the sauce over the broccoli, then add the chicken, 2nd half of broccoli and the other half of the sauce. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

*Make this recipe gluten free by using gluten free broth and bread crumbs.

**Easy time saver tip: Anytime you cook rice, make double and freeze extras for another recipe.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

Coconut flour is new to me, but I am having fun experimenting with it. This recipe is from elanaspantry.com and I thought was worth sharing. It is especially good with coconut oil spread on top :) I would even use coconut oil in the recipe in place of the grapeseed oil.

http://www.elanaspantry.com/blueberry-muffins/

Who Needs Manwich Anyway?!


So easy from scratch sloppy joe's that you will be sure to love!

Ingredients

    1lb ground bison, organic ground turkey or organic ground beef
    1-2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
    1onion diced
    1 cup organic ketchup
    1/3 cup purified water
    2Tablespoons Braggs apple cider vinegar
    2tablespoons Sucanat
    2tsp mustard
    2tsp garlic powder
    sea salt and pepper to taste.


Directions

Brown ground meat with chopped onion and grapeseed oil.
add remaining ingredients, stir and let simmer for 15-20 min.
serve on buns or bread or just eat plain. yum!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Homemade Fudgesicles!


Prepare yourself for melt in your mouth yummy goodness!!! These fudgesicles have a small story behind them: I have had several people mention to me lately about using avocado as a great base for raw desserts. I am all about avocado, so I decided to give a dessert a try. I did an avocado-chocolate-coconut cream popsicle. Not our favorite! Nothing like an avocado pop right? Well, just wasn't my cup of tea. I will definitely try more raw desserts using avocado, but these popsicles needed another try. Enter, fudgesicles! So basically I just took out the avocado, and added some extra goodness. Now we are talking. Now I am pleased with my result!!! :)...........ok ok my sweet friend Christy reminded me today that I forgot to add the dates. Whoops!!! So we can't rule out avocado fudgesicles just yet! ;)

1 can organic coconut milk (very creamy brand such as Thai)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup raw honey
1 tsp stevia
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend in your blender until mixed. Pour into your popsicle molds and freeze :)

Extra add ins:

For chocolate peanut butter pops add about 3 good size tablespoons organic peanut butter and blend.

For a minty treat, add 6-8 Newman's Own Organic Newman's O's Mint cookies and blend. (These contain organic sugar)

Each recipe makes 6-8 fudgesicles.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A Year of Changes....


WOW. Has it really been a year of posts already? One year ago I began this blog, to sort of document the changes we were making as a family. How far we've come! It feels great. As we begin another year of healthy changes, and experience the beginning of Restoration Wellness, these are some of things our family is focusing on:

~Gluten free recipes to reduce inflammation in our bodies, experimenting with coconut flour and almond flour more often.
~Dairy free recipes for the same reason, experimenting with coconut milk and almond milk more often. NOT using soy products in place of dairy.
~More natural and organic personal products.
~Homemade household cleaners using 'yummy' essential oils!

We're super excited to begin a new phase in our healthy living journey.

What changes are you making on your journey?