Savory Tartlets

 For Christmas...well an early Christmas gift we got some 'kitchen' gadgets, mini cupcake maker, cookie maker and a doughnut maker....Rob was 'creative' tonight and came up with the following....
Crust:
Equal Parts
1/2 cup Coconut Flour
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 cup Pan Flour (found at Mexican grocery stores)
3-4 Tablespoons of a Starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3-4 T Shortening
Cold Water
Mix all ingredients together to form a 'pastry' type consistency

Filling
2oz Cream Cheese
1 cup Cheese
1 egg
2 Green Onions
1/2 cup Cream
Dash of Garlic

Finished Products:

Sweet Italian Sausage

1lb ground pork
1/2 Tbls salt
1/2 Tbls ground fennel seed. Start with whole fennel seeds, and use your spice grinder attachment on your blender to grind them up, or do it manually in a mortar and pestle.
3/4 Tbls sweet paprika
1/2 Tbls finely minced fresh garlic
1/2 Tbls sugar/sugar substitute
1/2 tsp black pepper

3/4 tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

1 1/2 Tbls red wine vinegar
  Mix all the ingredients together...and you have Italian sausage! You can use this mix right away, but it will get better after about 12 hours in the fridge.

Soft Spice Cookie

3 c almond meal
1/4 c buckwheat flour
1/4 c sorghum flour
1/2 c startch
1 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp molasses
1 cup sugar/substitute
1/4 c agave
2 tsp cinamon
1/8-1/4 tsp cardimom
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 sticks of butter.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)
1/2 c pecans (optional)

Grain free lime cheesecake

4 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp zsweet (sugar)
2 cups swetened flaked coconut
1 lime
3 8oz pkg cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp potato starch
2 tsp pure vanilla extract





  Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Coat a 9in springform pan wth cooking spray.
  Separate the whites and yolks from 2 eggs placin the whites in a medium bowl.  Add 1 tbsp sugar to the whites and whisk until frothy; mix in the coconut.  Spread the mixture in on the bottom of the pan and bake until golden brownc, 25 to 30 minutes; cool for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven to 325 degrees F.
  Meanwhile, zest and juice the lime (you should get about 2 tsp zest ad 2 Tbsp juice) and set aside. 
  Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, potato tarch, lime juice, vanilla and 3/4 cup of the remaining Zsweet in a large bowl until smoth.
  Beat in the reserved egg yolks and remaining 2eggs one at a time.
  Spread the mixture on top of the crust andbake until edge is set and center till wobbles slightly 35 to 40 minutes.
  Let the cheesecake cool completely in the pan, then refrigerate until chiled at least 4 hours.

Millet Bark

Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Discs
Agave Syrup to sweeten
Puffed Millet

Melt chocolate discs in microwave at 20 second intervals stirring, then once melted add Agave (or other sweetener) stir in the Puffed Millet, then flatten out and let cool (we put in freezer for quick cooling)

It is REALLY good, almost has a marshamellow texture.  :-)

Carmelized Baked Chicken

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chicken wings (we used 4 Chicken Quarters)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 cup honey
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over the chicken.
3. Bake in preheated oven for one hour, or until sauce is caramelized.

****Because Rob is Diabetic, we try to use minimal Honey, so we only added 1/3 cup Honey and 2/3 cup Agave Nectar. 

Taco Rice

Taco Rice

2# Ground Turkey (you can use ground beef too) Seasoned with double batch of Lawry's Taco Seasoning
2 Cups Brown Rice
1 cup Lentils
1 Can Chili Ready Tomatoes
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Large Can Green Chiles
Triple batch of Lawry's Taco Seasoning
Cheese to top

Cook Rice & Lentils together, in the meantime cook the turkey with the seasonings.  Once rice is finished cooking mix all ingredients together and cook until heated through and well blended.  Then top with cheese (we used Medium Cheddar & PepperJack for a little bit of a kick)

Then serve up, and stir in so the cheese goes through each serving
I like to mix a little sour cream in my serving as well.

You can substitute the Lentils for canned kidney or black beans, just add after the rice is cooked instead.

Popcorn alternative

I am and have always been a popcorn addict...so going grain free has been tough.  We found kind of an alternative Puffed Millet (we get it at Good Earth in their cereal section).  We melt a little butter, add garlic powder, sea salt and parsley then stir it into a bowl of puffed millet.  Then microwave until crisp usually 3 to 4 min but you stir it every 20 seconds or it will scorch...it is not popcorn but it is yummy.

Grainfree cheesy crackers

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Homemade Grain Free Cheesy Crackers

Rob has been wanting to make crackers, so tonight he did!
He used each ingredient to taste lol.

Almond Flour
Cheese (we only had the sliced american)
Cheese Powder
Butter
Blend ingredients in a food processor, roll out and slice into squares with pizza cutter, then we put in the freezer for a few minutes to cool so we could easily break them apart, then arranged on a cookie sheet.
Baked at 350 for about 9 min

Grilled Cheese n Tomato Soup

They were having grilled cheese at Rob's work and it sounded really good to him, so we picked up a loaf of Brown Rice Bread from Good Earth, and had Grilled Cheese with homemade tomatoe soup.  Really yummy.  The bread is high in sugars though so it's gonna have to be a RARE thing for Rob to have.  It was nice to have bread again, although I am not a HUGE bread lover, never have been....probably because it always made me feel icky afterwards.  We also picked up some foccacia bread made out rice flour, we made pizzas and navajo tacos out of it.  It was really good.

Wine Chicken, Garlic Butter N Parsley Noodles

Dinner: Wine Chicken
Garlic Butter N Parsley Noodles
Seasoned Veggies w/cabbage
Garden Salad (homemade ranch dressing, cheese, sunflower seeds, tomatoes)

***Wine Chicken***

1 Cup Wine (Red or White --we use Merlot or Chablis just whatever you have)
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
2 T Ground Rosemary

Mix ingredients together, best if you let chicken marinate for several hours or even overnight.

***Garlic Butter N Parsley Noodles***
We just cook up the noodles (these ones are brown rice/spinach mix)
Then melt some butter (we use about 1/2 stick per package of noodles)
throw in 2 tablespoons of diced garlic
couple tablespoons of parsley
Toss in Pasta (Rob & I both like to use a little soy sauce as well on our pasta)

Chinese

We love Chinese, and just because we are grain free/sugar free doesn't mean we can't enjoy it on occasion.


Fried Rice:
2 Cups Brown Rice
1 Can Spam (we actually prefer the taste of Walmart Brand Luncheon Meat)
1-2 Stalks Green Onions
1 Can Bean Sprouts or equivilant Fresh
Soy Sauce

Cook Rice, Cube Spam & Fry until brown on edges, Chop up green onion,  drain & rinse bean sprouts.  Mix cooked rice, cooked spam, green onion & bean sprouts together, add Soy Sauce to taste

Sweet N Sour Pork
3 T Rice Vinegar
2 T Brown Sugar (we use Sugar Twin Brown Sugar Substitute)
1 T Soy Sauce
1 T Tomato Paste
1 T Arrowroot to thicken
1/2 cup of Chicken or Turkey Broth
Chopped Pork (we used remains of a roast we had made)
Mix all ingredients together :-)

Stir Fry Veggies
1 Package Stir Fry Veggies
1/4 Head of Cabbage
Olive Oil
3 T Soy Sauce
1 T Marsala Cooking Wine or Sherry
Ginger to taste
1 T Oyster Sauce
1 T Plum Sauce
2-3 T Chicken Broth
1 T Arrowroot to thicken
Heat Oil in Pan, steam/cook veggies, meanwhile mixing the sauce ingredients together.  When Veggies are done stir in the sauce

Pork Chops N Stir Fry

Pork Chops with sweet potatoes & pears & side of garlic n lemon pepper stir fry veggies

Grain & Sugar Free Living CAN make a difference!

Well we have been on this journey for 4 months now and Rob is doing awesome!  He's lost 30# since August, and feels MUCH better, he still has off days but not as many, and isn't as stiff & sore going up stairs, and has less tummy issues for the most part (other than Glucophage side effects lol).  We got his blood tests back, and at our visit the Dr told him that he may have to go on insulin depending on how his insulin levels were averaging....well his levels are still elevated but LOTS lower than they were!  WOOT WOOT!  No insulin for Rob!

The 1st results will be Augusts, the 2nd will be the results we got today:
Glucose 338 High!          145 High
AST (SGOT) 48 High    15 Normal
ALT (SGPT)  68 High    19 Normal
Microalbuminuria 32 High  39.8 High
Microalb/Crea Ration 74.2 High 36.7 High (but improved)
Hemoglobin ALC 12.5 High  7.9 High but Much Better!!!  (this is the test that determined if Rob needed insulin in addition to Glucophage, Dr said if it was higher than a 9 he was going to need insulin)
Vitamin D 5.8 Low!!!!  24.9 Low but up but still too low!
Thyroid Panel ran this time was normal but borderline so we will discuss at next visit in 3 months

I am over the moon with his results, and VERY VERY proud of him!