It’s been a while since my last post- but in the meantime I’ve enjoyed first trimester exhaustion, and come back to normal, so I’m cooking again!  Being a pregnant lady, I’ve been craving good old comfort food.  So yesterday I decided to attempt donuts.  I’ve never made regular donuts, never mind a healthier version.  These came out great and they taste better the next day!  They are not overly sweet and they don’t make your blood sugar rise and crash like normal donuts.

Maple spiced cake donuts

Makes 12 donuts and 12 donut holes

1/2 cup yogurt
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave nectar (next time I want to try apple cider)
2 tbsp canola oil
3 cups light spelt flour, whole spelt flour, or whole wheat flour
1 cup barley flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl until throughly combined, and mix the dry in another.  Add the wet to the dry and stir for a minute or two until they are mixed well.  Refridgerate for 2 hours. 

Heat a pot with at least 2 inches of oil to medium high or, if you have a candy thermometer, to 365 degrees.  Be sure to use an oil with a high smoke point such as canola or peanut. 

Roll out your dough to about 3/8 inch thick.  I find it easy to roll out with a sheet of waxed paper between the dough and rolling pin so they don’t stick together.  Cut donuts with a donut cutter or, if you don’t have one, with round objects from around your kitchen.  I suggest a 1 cup measuring cup and bottle cap (that’s what I did anyway, and it worked for me).  If you’re using household objects, look for the sharpest edges you can find. 

Test your oil by throwing in a small piece of dough.  It should brown within 20-30 seconds.  Once the oil is ready, place donuts a few at a time into the pan, making sure you don’t crowd them.  Throw in the donut holes too.  Once one side is browned, flip with a slotted spoon to brown the other side.  Drain on a cooling rack over a plate or on a few layers of paper towels.  The big donuts take about 45 seconds per side. 

Serve warm or cold, with maple syrup drizzed on top if desired. 

Loosely based on Molasses Doughnuts from King Arthur Flour Baking with Whole Grains.

This is the second try for the perfect apple cinnamon coffee cake. I got closer this time, using an adapted version of the Awesome Blueberry Cake. This cake is dense, moist, and full of apples.  I made it last night and it’s almost gone!

Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Batter:
1/3 cup applesauce
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup soymilk
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup whole spelt flour or 1 cup spelt 3/4 cup barley
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups chopped apples (with peels if organic)

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup whole rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp light agave nectar
1 tbsp canola oil

In one bowl, mix the wet batter ingredients and flaxseed. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, minus the apples. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix well. Mix together the topping, and spread evenly on the top of the batter. Bake in a greased 9×9 pan at 350 for 45 minutes.

I appreciate this recipe for its lack of eggs.  I grew up not being able to eat the cookie dough because it had raw eggs in it, and I’m always kind of grossed out by them anyway (uncooked anyway).  I have yet to crack an egg without having a little egg explosion all over my hands. 

My husband’s great-grandmother who lived until 97 is famous for making floating island  for her guests.  Ideally, egg dishes are cooked, but this was not.  I guess my husband didn’t mind as a child, until he realized that his delicious dessert was undercooked eggs floating in undercooked egg custard.  I do not want him to relive this in any way, so I’m extra careful with my egg dishes, or, better yet, I just make a vegan cake.

In my quest for a yummy healthy apple coffee cake, this is my first attempt.  It is based on a coffee cake recipe, but they really are not quite coffee cake texture.  I think they came out well anyway, though.  

Whole Grain Apple Muffins

Batter:
1 1/4 cups oat flour (or finely ground oats)
1 1/4 cups spelt flour or whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup + 1/6 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain unsweetened yogurt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped apple pieces
optional: 1/2 cup walnuts

Topping:
1 cup oats
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp canola oil
optional: walnut halves for garnish

Mix together the dry batter ingredients in one bowl, and the wet batter ingredients in another bowl.  Add the wet to the dry and mix together.  Fold in chopped apple and walnuts, if using.  Mix together topping.  Pour into muffin tins and put some topping on each muffin.  Add walnut halves to each muffin if you like. 

Bake at 325 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

My husband’s opinion of these muffins is “mmmmmmmm”.  I particularly like the chopped apple, because it’s a bit less common to find in a muffin, but so tasty!

Adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

I made up this recipe a while ago, and I find them to be quite easy to make and enjoyable to eat.  They don’t store particularly well, so eat them within a few days of baking.  Or, save part of the cookie dough and bake some later too! 

These oatmeal cookies can be gluten free if you make them with gf oats.  They are only sweetened with fruit and inside when they bake they get soft inside but a little crusty on the outside.  I can’t explain it well, just try the recipe and you’ll see what I mean!

Fruit-Sweetened, Vegan, Wheat Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup raisins
1 cup pitted dates
1 cup apple juice
1 cup oat flour or finely ground rolled oats
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins or walnuts

Bring the raisins, dates and apple juice to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, covered.  Mix together dry ingredients.  When the fruit is done cooking, blend it in a food processor or blender.  Add to dry mixture, and drop by the tablespoon onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until golden. 

On weekend mornings, I love to make pancakes or waffles, but by the time I’m done, I’m grouchy and hungry and the whole process has lost its appeal.  So, this week while at Trader Joe’s, I caved in a bought a pancake and waffle mix.  It’s gluten free and there’s no sugar added to the mix.  My husband decided he wanted waffles, and I wanted pancakes.

For $2.99, one mix plus a little oil and 3 eggs made enough for two breakfasts for each of us. They are really tasty and soft.  

Ingredients:sweet brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, rice milk powder, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, baking soda, sea salt, ground vanilla bean 

I’m currently working on an apple coffee cake recipe inspired by S for KC and my fabulous blueberry cake recipe.  I will be able to get to that over Memorial Day weekend and hopefully have a lot of baking success to share soon

Here are some great books that I have found very helpful while trying to be healthier.

The pH Miracle
This is the book that first got me thinking about being healthier.  It talks about having an alkaline body pH, and how to do so.  That means more vegetables and alkenalizing grains, and less meat and dairy.  It is similar to the type A plan in according to the blood type diet, discussed in the Eat Right For Your Type books.

Live Right For Your Type 
A different diet plan for each blood type.  I find it frighteningly accurate for me. 

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan For Automatic Weight Loss
Lots of great information about your health.  Dr. Hyman discusses many weight loss myths and backs up his points with science.  

Cookbooks:

King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking
Lots of information about baking with different, non-traditional flours like barley, brown rice, spelt, etc.  Not much information about baking gluten free or sugar free, but definately better than totally refined wheat recipes.  A good starting point for someone who wants to work up to eating all whole grains or looking to add more nutrition to their treats.

The “I Can’t Believe This Has No Sugar” Cookbook
A cookbook of fruit-sweetened desserts.  Some use date sugar, which is expensive and a bit hard to find, but I did have some luck with it.  I have been quite pleased by the recipes in this book. 

Sweet And Sugarfree: An All-Natural Fruit-Sweetened Dessert Cookbook
Another cookbook with fruit-sweetened desserts. 

 Baking With Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature’s Ultimate Sweetener
My favorite cookbook. 

 
Have anything to add?  Let me know!

Another of my favorite treats that I never expected to be able to eat on a healthy diet is chicken fingers.  This recipe is referred to by my friends as Healthy Chicken Fingers.  They are made with good fresh heart-healthy oil and whole grain flour.  What’s not to love?  I never measure ingredients when I make this recipe, so I have estimated.  Adjust to your liking.

Healthy Chicken Fingers

6 – 8 Chicken tenderloins or chicken breasts cut into strips
1 egg
3/4 – 1 cup Brown Rice Flour
1 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
A pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
A pinch of Black Pepper
Canola Oil

Put about an inch of oil in a pan on medium heat, and while your oil warms up, mix together all dry ingredients.  Beat the egg and dip the chicken in egg, then in the flour mixture.  Fry until golden brown.  Serve with organic ketchup and a salad. 

My friend commented once that these taste better than the fast food kind.  I hope you think so too!

I just love chicken. Being one of the only meats I can digest (I ate beef and pork for so very long, and ignored many a stomachache because of it) it’s kind of a staple around my house. I like to buy a whole chicken, and make a soup out of it, and then a lot of the meat then becomes chicken salad or some other fun thing. Today I will share 3 chicken recipes, all from one whole chicken. The one I bought the other day cost about $7.50 and it will last all week in various forms.

First, I cook the chicken and start making the stock. For the broth, you will need:

a whole chicken

a couple of carrots

a couple stalks of celery

half an onion

a bay leaf or two

your choice of spices

black pepper

Later, you will need: whatever veggies you like in your soup- I suggest a bag of frozen mixed veggies, celery, carrots, onion, potatoes…

brown rice or pasta

wild rice is also nice in this soup

Put the chicken in a stock pot and fill it with water. Add the ingredients from list #1. Cook this for a while until the meat on the chicken is cooked all the way through- a half hour to 45 minutes (or so). Take off the meat that you can get to easily, like the breast meat and some from the legs. Put that in the fridge. Cook the carcass for a couple of hours, until you feel like going on to the next step. Add water as needed.

Cook your rice or pasta while you strain the bones and veggies from the broth, and find the chicken that is still left on the bones. Put the broth back on the stove. Add the vegetables that you want in your soup, and cook for a short time, until they feel ready. When the vegetables are done, add the rice or pasta and salt.

Chicken Salad

Ok, remember that chicken you put in the fridge? It will make great chicken salad. Once it’s cooled, cut into small chunks. Divide the chicken to make both of the following recipes.

You will need:

Mayonnaise (corn syrup free)

1/2 -3/4 cup chopped onions

1/2-3/4 cup chopped celery

freshly ground salt and pepper

Mix together. Yum!

Fake Pulled Pork Sandwich

My husband likes pulled BBQ pork sandwiches, but he hasn’t had one for years. This was a welcome surprise. You will need:

barbecue sauce

onions

freshly ground pepper

lettuce & tomato

whole grain bread

Mix the barbecue sauce, onions, and chicken. Make a sandwich. Yum!