I scoured the grocery store Wednesday after teaching my 4 p.m. yoga class desperately looking, but unwilling to ask, for peanut sauce. I couldn’t even find a Jiffy and sugar version of peanut sauce! Not that I would have stooped so low…

So I trudged home, hungry and still dreaming of grilled chicken with steamed greens dipped in peanut sauce. They say hunger is the root of all tasty recipes… and so it was the case on Wednesday. I measured and mixed and taste tested until I came up with this recipe, a recipe Elav said triggered a childhood memory. I think that’s a good sign.

I invite you to test this recipe and leave comments! But first, a confession: at the Savvy Recipe Development talk (just one of the wonderful events at the Nourished Food Blogger Conference) it was recommended to test a recipe three times before publishing it. And I only tested my recipe, um, once. My only excuse is that I haven’t had time to get through 10 servings of really, really good Peanut Sauce since Wednesday. But I’ve made a huge dent.

Enjoy!

Peanut Sauce

Makes 10 servings

Ingredients

3/4 C Peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/4 C Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Tb Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tb Liquid Aminos
1 1/2 Tb Water
1 Tb Honey
1 Tb Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tb Garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp Fish Sauce
1 1/2 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Yellow Curry powder
1/2 tsp White Wine Vinegar
1/4 tsp Real Salt

Directions

1. Using a food processor, like this Cuisinart Food Processor, mix all ingredients.
2. Taste test and adjust as necessary.
3. Use on top of free range, organic broiled or grilled chicken or as the marinade for free range, organic pork chops.
4. Enjoy and…
5. Leave your comments below!

Linked to: Real Food Wednesday

Since I’ve begun to make my own sauerkraut, my husband lovingly refers to me as his Sour Kraut.  Sauerkraut is a condiment and translates from German to mean “sour herb” or “sour cabbage.”  It is fermented by using lactic acid bacteria, a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria.

Vegetables and fruits are preserved by the processes of lacto-fermentation and have myriad advantages beyond the act of preservation.  Lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhance their digestibility and increases vitamin levels, produce helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances.  Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps vegetables and fruits in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes the growth of healthy flora throughout the intestine.  Other alchemical by-products include hydrogen peroxide and small amounts of benzoic acid.  (Weston A Price)

Whey, containing lactic acid and lactic-acid-producing bacteria, acts as an inoculate, reducing the time needed for sufficient lactic acid to be produced to ensure preservation.  Using whey will reduce the amount of time it takes to ferment and will provide consistent pickling success.

I had a craving for something dessert-like yesterday, so I pulled out my Internal Bliss GAPS cookbook and found a recipe for Acorn Custard (which I had begun to prepare for 3 weeks ago by making Dijon Mustard).  I’m a huge fan of a good smooth pudding or custard texture.  When my hubbles and I took that first bite… mmm!  It was so smooth and so sweet.

I used to think vegetables were just vegetables: you steam ‘em, bake ‘em, roast ‘em, flatten ‘em with a fork, add lots of butter and slide ‘em down.  In the last few months though, my concept of what vegetables can be and taste like has altered so drastically!  I’m turning vegetables into pancakes and custards!  What’s next?!

Acorn Custard

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 Acorn Squash
1/2 cup Ghee
1/2 cup Honey
3 Eggs
1 Tb Dijon Mustard (I made it here)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
Cinnamon

Equipment

6-8 Ramekins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Place squash on a baking tray in the oven for approximately 1 hour or until a fork can easily break the skin
2. Twenty minutes before the squash is finished, blend the remaining ingredients together (I used a food processor).
3. When the squash is out of the oven, cut it in half, deseed and deskin it.
4. Blend the squash with the ingredients and pour into ramekin dishes.
5. Bake the custard in the oven at 350 F. for 40 – 50 minutes or until a toothpick (or knife) comes out clean.  Let cool.

*Make just enough for your household, freeze the mixture and save the rest for another day.

I had a few ripe bananas, in fact, I still have a few (but those will go into banana ice cream!) and when a person is handed over-ripe bananas… they make Banana Bread.  Very easy recipe, UNLESS you don’t own a food processor or if your food processor is a titch too small (like mine).  Then you have to make a few batches and mix very well at the end.  The final photo says it all: it even has that perfect little crack down the top of the crust!

Banana bread

Ingredients

3 Cups Almond Flour
2 ripe Bananas
1/3 Cup Ghee
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/2 Cup Honey
1/4 tsp Salt
4 Eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° F.
2. Blend all ingredients until smooth in a food processor.
3. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan.
4. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from Internal Bliss – GAPS Cookbook (Recipes designed for those following the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet)

This blog will help you learn how to prepare nuts and seeds (and beans and legumes) to make them more digestible to your body. It’s the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors that make seeds and nuts difficult to digest, maybe causing a little bloating or gas. Or both. What is that drug used to keep you from having gas? Oh yeah, Beano. Some users of Beano complain of abdominal swelling, nausea, abdominal pain, and belching. Maybe all they need to do was sprout their grains, legumes, nuts and seeds!

By following a few simple steps, you can aid in your body’s digestion and feel better about the food you eat.  If you are interested in reading more about phytic acid, click here to be read “Living with Phytic Acid” by Ramiel Nagel.

Sprouting Seeds, Nuts, Beans and Legumes

Ingredients

Seeds, nuts, beans, or legumes
Filtered water
Sea Salt (2 Tb per 4 C water)

Equipment

Cheesecloth

Directions

STEP 1–SOAKING

1. Place your seeds, nuts, beans or legumes into a ceramic or glass bowl leaving at least an inch of empty space at the top.
2. Add filtered water to the bowl, just enough to cover the top of the seeds, nuts, beans or legumes.
3. Add sea salt :: 2 Tablespoons per 4 Cups of water.
4. Cover with cheesecloth or flour sack towel for at least 12 hours.

You may consume your nuts, seeds, legumes or beans after this step if you eat them within 2-4 days. If that’s not possible, step 2 will keep your food longer.

STEP 2–DEHYDRATING (SEEDS AND NUTS ONLY)

1. Rinse seeds and nuts. Then either
1. use a dehydrator: set the temperature (if you have the option) to 105°F for 18 – 24 hours or until seeds and nuts are crunchy OR
2. use an oven: cover a pan with a baking sheet and place seeds and/or nuts on the pan. Bake at 150°F for 12 – 18 hours or until seeds and nuts are crunchy.
2. Then place in an airtight container for storage and your product will last for months.

If you do not dehydrate the nuts, they are more susceptible to spoiling and will need to be refrigerated and consumed within 2 to 4 days.

STEP 3–NUT FLOURS AND NUT BUTTERS

Equipment needed: Food Processor

• FLOUR: put the nuts into your food processor until the consistency is similar to that of flour.
• BUTTER: put the nuts into the food processor until the consistency is similar to that of butter.  This will take a much longer time and is dependent on the quality of your food processor.

1. Put 1 cup of your seeds or nuts into a blender.
2. Add 3 cups of filtered water and blend until the nuts and seeds are finely ground and the water has turned a nice milky color.
3. Use a cheesecloth or a fine sieve to separate the milk from the pulp.  (Pulp may be used for future milk making, or dehydrated and blended into fine powder for flour.)
4. You may drink the milk as is or…

Options to add while chilling: vanilla extract, honey, dates, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, fresh fruit.

Internal Bliss – GAPS Cookbook (Recipes designed for those following the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet)

This is an amazing pancake with three ingredients: eggs, peanut butter (or any kind of nut butter) and squash.  Servings depend on size of squash.

Acorn Squash Pancake

Ingredients

1 Squash (i.e. Acorn, Butternut)
2-3 farm fresh Eggs
2-3 Tb Nut Butter (i.e. Peanut Butter, Almond Butter)
Ghee, lard or another animal fat

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Bake medium-sized squash for 60 minutes in a pan.
3. Then deseed and peel off skin of squash.
4. Blend squash meat well in Food Processor or Hand Blender.
5. Mix in eggs and nut butter.
6. Fry each pancake in ghee, lard or another animal fat.

Recipe from Gut and Psychology Syndrome: Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A.D.D., Dyslexia, A.D.H.D., Depression, Schizophrenia.

I think I just fell in love with my food processor!

Allow me to explain:  Saturday went very well with the first day of my cleanse but Sunday was a bit more harsh as my body was starting to “haul out the trash” and that rarely feels good.  Today I woke up with Elav at 5:30 A.M. and felt quite a bit better than last night as I got breakfast and lunch set up and packed up for him.  But by the time I was making my own breakfast plans forty five minutes later, I could barely stand up straight.  I was so weak and the idea of drinking more bone broth was enough to bring on dry heaves.  I was left with one option: go back to bed and, after waking up, get food in me quickly before the sick feeling hit.

That’s what I did.  I woke up, put some bone broth in me, even though it was just a few spoonfuls and I put the rest in the freezer.  I knew my body was telling me to quit fasting so I made the executive decision to move into the Introduction GAPS Diet, Stage One.  This stage includes more bone broth (ugh) with cooked vegetables and probiotic juice (the juice from my sauerkraut).  And of course hot teas.

Yesterday afternoon I put my chicken bones (from a free range organic chicken) with the skin and fat, cut up carrots, celery and onion into the crock pot to make bone broth overnight (celery is only for flavor, and not allowed for eating in Stage One).  This morning I steamed broccoli florettes and steamed an Acorn winter squash.  Into my food processor I added the skins and fat from my chicken, chicken broth, steamed broccoli flourettes, and squash meat.  Then I blended it all together.

The result was a greenish yellow smooth but textured soup, do you know how that is?  I hesitantly took a bite, worried about my oh-so-sensitive stomach, and of course you know the results: I liked it!  I can get food in me again!

I feel so relieved because I actually have a big day planned.