US Open in San Francisco

I went to the US Open in San Francisco!!! Totally on the fly!! Can you hear my excitement?? Here's the proof.

I know this is off subject from my usual subject matter but I promised my new pilot friend from United Airlines I would let him know I made it to the Open. Thanks for your encouragement friend!!!

BTW Keep your eyes on Beau Hossler. A 17 year old amateur that is giving the professional golfers a run for their money. He cracked up after a few good holes and finished 3 over. He made the cut and is only 3 strokes off from the leaders. You go BEAU!!

I promise I'll be back on my subject matter for my next post.

Oh yeah, Did I mention I got my picture taken with Charles Howell III?

Spicy Crackers with a hint of lemon

My husband and I tried a new restaurant tonight. It is called Local Eatery and Pub. It's located at Gray Rd and 146th St in Carmel/Westfield IN. It boasts a menu of all locally bought food to serve their patrons. 

We started the meal with an appetizer of baked goat cheese. It was baked with a sprig of rosemary and roasted garlic clove and olive oil and served with a crusty warm Italian bread. That's when I wished I had my homemade grain-free crackers with me. I have not made any for a while. So, I remedied that as soon as we got home from dinner. I went to my favorite "go to" grain-free cookbook by Elana Amsterdam and flipped it open to this delicious recipe. I changed it up a little based on what I had in my pantry. 

Substitutions are always ok if you like the flavor it produces. Face it, if you don't like the flavor, texture, sweetness, familiarity (or fill in the blank) of the food you're not going to make it, much less eat it and the point of this blog is to give you grain-free recipe options that have a familiar taste to the glutenous recipes you made in the past. That way you are more likely to make it again and again.

Think about it. How many different dishes do you make every month? If you are anything like me, I eat the same dishes over and over. Here we have a simple cracker recipe that you can keep on hand and carry with you. Change out the lemon for lime and you can take these crackers to the Mexican restaurant and eat them in place of those lime infused corn chips.

Spicy Crackers

Spicy Crackers

• 3 cups Almond Flour
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1 Tbs Smoked Paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbs lemon infused grapeseed oil (found this at TJ Maxx)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp lemon peel (from spice cabinet)

1. Preheat oven for 350 degrees.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients in medium bowl.
3. Mix together oil, eggs and lemon peel in small bowl.
4. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix together. It might be necessary to use your hands to incorporate all the ingredients completely.
5. Divide dough into 3 equal portions and roll each portion out between two pieces of parchment paper to about 1/16th of an inch thick, cutting into squares of other shapes with a pizza cutter. This is very thin but not thin enough to see through.
6. Leave sliced dough on the parchment pare and place it on a cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes.
8. Let cook on the cookie sheet.
9. Store in ziplock bags once completely cooled.

Keep these crackers on hand for an easy "go to" grain-free savory, crunchy snack. Use lime instead of lemon and make a cracker to scoop up that delicious homemade salsa. 

Stop reading the labels on the boxes of food in the grocery and make it from scratch. My recipes are delicious and don't take longer to prepare then it takes to eat a handful.

ENJOY!

Coconut Cupcakes

I love cupcakes, coconut and I love recipes that only take a little bit of time to throw together. Well I hit the trifecta with this one.
 The texture is light and moist and the flavor is full and rich. I can only take credit for making this recipe, not for developing the recipe. I did however alter the recipe slightly from the original.
Here they are, Mini-cupcakes. They took less then 5 minutes to stir together and only about 12 minutes to bake. And it made over 30 cupcakes. I must have a party with that many cupcakes. Who's in?

Coconut Mini-Cupcakes

• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teas sea salt
• 1/2 teas baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Blend eggs, oil and maple syrup in a small bowl with a hand mixer
2. In separate small bowl, combine coconut flour, salt, baking soda and coconut.
3. Combine wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
4. Allow batter to sit for a few minutes to thicken. I found the batter to be thick already.
5. Place cupcake papers in cupcake tin and spray lightly with non-stick spray.
6. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of batter into each mini-cupcake paper.
7. Bake at 350degrees for about 12 minutes
8. Remove cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool for approx 20 minutes.
9. Frost with mocha trehalose frosting.
10. Makes approx 30 mini-cupcakes

The original recipe came from www.elenaspantry.com under the cupcakes recipe tab.

This recipe is a winner in my recipe book! Fast, delicious, coconut and SOOOO easy!

Let me know how your cupcakes turned out!

ENJOY!

Mocha Frosting made with Trehalose

Trehalose....What is it?

*"Trehalose - a versatile, natural and healthy sugar

You may not have heard about Trehalose but I'm sure you will have heard about diabetes - in a strange way they are connected. Trehalose is a relatively recent discovery and just 12 years ago Trehalose was confined to the research labs and academics. TREHALOSE is NATURAL and CONTAINS NO CHEMICALS. The breakthrough came in Japan about 15 years ago when a scientist managed to get an enzyme to convert simple starch into Trehalose. This breakthrough enabled Trehalose to reach many more places and today it is used widely in the cosmetic industry, skincare, food preparation and the freezing of living organisms for transportation or research - called cryo-preservation. Trehalose has the ability to stabilise proteins and that's one of its major uses in the food industry. Trehalose was first used in Japan to help in the preparation of sushi where it helps with stability, flavour and shelf life. Learn about Trehalose and how it can aid healthful living. It is a viable, natural alternative to sucrose (white table sugar) and research suggests that it is a good alternative natural sweetener and much better than Aspartame or Nutra Sweet - oh and an added benefit is that you will have better energy levels throughout the day.

When eaten it has a very low effect on the blood glucose level and hence is very useful for diabetics.

Due to its ability to stabilize protein it may also have some benefits in terms of aiding neurological degenerative diseases."

WOW, sounds almost to good to be true! Especially the last statement, "some benefits in terms of aiding neurological degenerative diseases." Give me some! I ordered 10 lbs. I found it for $4-lb from Glycop.com. You don't have to buy a membership to order the "essentials". I can thank my dad for turning me on to this sweet brain food. 

Granulated Trehalose

Blend until Trehalose is powdered

Ever since I got my first 5-lbs in I wanted to try making cupcake frosting with it. So today, I finally had a day in the kitchen to experiment. 


Experimenting I did. First thing I needed to do was make powdered trehalose/sugar out of granulated trehalose/sugar. I used a blender to accomplish this. Pulse in the blender for 2 to 4 minutes until the granulated sugar is a fine powder.


Recipe follows:


Mocha Frosting made with Trehalose

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance coconut spread OR butter
• 3 cups powdered Trehalose 
• 2 Tbs cocoa
• 2 Tbs warm water
• 1 pkg Starbucks VIA micro ground coffee (mixed in the 2 Tbs warm water)



Use 1 pkg SB VIA

• 1 to 2 Tbs additional warm water to desired consistency.

Earth Balance Coconut Spread

1. Whisk together powdered sugar and cocoa.
2. Using a hand mixer, cream softened coconut spread and half the powdered Trehalose.
3. Incorporate the rest of the Trehalose and the strong coffee into the mixture.
4. Add additional warm water blending to desired consistency for piping or spreading frosting on cupcakes.

Mocha Frosting

This is not a product that disappoints with bitter aftertaste or gastro-intestinal discomfort. 

It has a crisp clean sweetness that satisfies and doesn't create a residual craving that demands over eating and eventual discomfort. Trehalose is now a staple item in my pantry and replaces white table sugar for good. It will also be replacing agave, honey, maple syrup and coconut nectar in some recipes.

You can order Trehalose here for $4 per lb. I purchase 5 lbs at a time. I have not baked with Trehalose yet but will be experimenting very soon. Trehalose is about 45% the sweetness of sucrose(regular table sugar).


A special thanks to The Wannabe Chef for the original recipe I used as a guideline for this recipe adaptation Mocha Frosting made with Trehalose.
Let me know what recipes you are using Trehalose in.

*Trehalose information taken/copied from http://www.squidoo.com/trehalose