Knives in My Face

Well, ok... not actual knives.

I have a sinus infection that just makes it feel like there are knives in my face.

Now, I know that sinus infections are the one and only reason you visit this blog. I mean, the thought of this topic must have you reeling with joy... Believe me, I feel the same way.

I'll be brief and without detail.

I am terribly sick. I have tried EVERYTHING.

Prescriptions, over the counter medicine, pain relievers, decongestants, essential oils on my feet, essential oils on my face/neck, steam breathing treatments with essential oils, supplements, vitamins, teas... EVERYTHING.

Nothing seems to be working and all I can feel are the knives in my sinuses.

Last week was Spring Break and I got to enjoy it with several days in bed weeping in pain. And to add insult to injury, I haven't been able to taste anything in about 2 weeks.

I tell you all this so that you will understand why I'm not in the kitchen testing new recipes. I'm desperate to get back in there... but this has been going on for weeks now and I just can't.

I apologize.

Thank you for understanding and let me know in the comments if there is something you would like me to test when I am back up and going.

Chocolate G.A.P.S. Cupcakes and Buttercream Icing

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I made these cupcakes for my family. I was a little worried because I didn't have time to let the cupcakes cool completely before icing them.

That turned out to be a wonderful problem to have as the icing melted a little on the bottom and made the cake super moist!

These taste just like devil's food chocolate cake to me, but you'll have to judge for yourself!

Recipe -

Cupcakes - 

• 2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder (I use raw,organic cacao)
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cream honey and butter together in mixer for 1 minute.

3. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each addition.

4. Add dry ingredients. Beat for 30 seconds.

5. Add vanilla extract.  

6. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

7. Set aside until only slightly warm to the touch. About 30 minutes. Then top with buttercream.

Buttercream Icing - 

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
•  2 tsp vanilla extract
• Dash of salt
• 3/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp butter

1. In small sauce pan, bring water to boil for double boiler.

2. Mix eggs, honey, vanilla and salt together in mixing bowl.

3. Turn heat until boiling water to low-med and place mixing bowl on top of pan.

4. Whisk egg/honey mixture constantly for 4 minutes.

5. Remove bowl from heat and pour contents into mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy. It will almost look like the marshmallow mix and will take about 5 minutes.  

6. Add butter one Tbsp at a time until all is added.

7. Beat on high for an additional minute.

Note: If you want this icing to be more firm you can refrigerate for a few minutes. Too long and it will become too hard to spread.

Troubleshooting: If your icing separates during the butter addition, allow mix to sit on the counter for about 5 minutes and then continue to beat the icing. It may take awhile, but it WILL turn into smooth and gorgeous buttercream!This happens when the butter is still too cold.

I also made this in a round cake pan, lightly greased with butter and spread the icing in a thick layer on top. It was even better than the cupcakes!! So good in fact, that it was gone before I could get a picture!

Any way you slice it, this chocolate creation is to die for. ;-)

Almond Flour Rolls

A few weeks ago I found this company that makes "Paleo" bread. I looked up the ingredients and it seemed pretty simple... so I tried to figure it out on my own. It worked out wonderfully!

Here are the results!

Recipe -

1 1/4 cup almond flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk powder (flax won't work)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
2 whole eggs
1 cup warm water

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 and line sheet with parchment.

2. Mix dry ingredients together until well combined.

3. Add eggs to form thick mix.

4. Add water and mix until thick again. This step may take a few minutes, but it will thicken!

5. Quickly form into small, flat discs and bake! Don't be tempted to make them too big... they rise a lot!

6. Bake for 90 minutes.

The raw mix texture is very similar to cornbread, but shockingly it rises into these beautiful bread rolls!

I think these would be great for sandwiches/burgers! I have a batch of bacon that I am going to use for BLTs tonight... we'll see how it goes! I will post pictures of the results! :-)

Chocolate Drops and Candy Bars

Hey y'all. I'm glad to be back in the kitchen, I've been sick!

But today I got back in there and whipped up a few things with my new goodies! First was this beautiful batch of homemade chocolate.

Never having made chocolate from scratch before, I was a bit intimidated. This was something that I had always longed to do, but never had the gumption.

It was so easy!

Recipe -
3/4 cup cocoa butter
3/4 cup cocoa (I used cacao)
1/3 cup honey
dash of vanilla
dash of salt

1. Melt cocoa butter completely. Do not leave on the stove after melted, removed it right away.

2. Add cocoa and mix thoroughly.

3. Add honey, vanilla and salt. Mix thoroughly with a whisk until smooth.

4. Pour into molds or greased glass pan and allow to cool completely*.

*The cooling process took several hours for me, even in the fridge. They will set up, but it will take a while!

I had these cute little fun-size candy bar molds which I made use of today. I mixed some dried cherries and walnuts into half of the chocolate and then spooned the mix into the molds. They turned out really well.

 

I think I'll make these with a marshmallow filling, or caramel, or almond butter... or any number of other things...

Mail's Here!!

Today all my orders came in from Amazon and I cannot wait to get cooking with them!!

2lbs - Grass-fed beef gelatin (kosher)
2lbs - Raw organic cacao power
2lbs - Cold-pressed organic cocoa butter

Oh I'm so excited to try these new products out! The gelatin you've seen in the Honey-Marshmallow recipe, but the others I haven't tried before. I'm looking forward to seeing how the tastes compare to the processed stuff that most of us grew up with.

And yes... I know that many of my recipes are chocolate right now. They won't be for long... it's a phase... bare with me!

With these new kickin' ingredients, you're going to have to "suffer" through just a couple more chocolate posts... then we'll try something else for a while... I suppose :-)

Chocolate Caramel Candy - G.A.P.S. Tootsie Roll Copy-cat

Made with full-fat butter and local honey, these candies really hit the spot when you're having a craving for something you shouldn't eat!

Guilt free, I keep a few of these in my purse and haven't really even been tempted to eat non-G.A.P.S. at all!

Recipe -

Yields 150 (+/-20)

1/2 cup butter
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cup organic cocoa powder
2 tbsp vanilla extract
Dash of salt

1. Melt butter and add honey.

2. Bring honey/butter mixture to a boil and boil for 3 full minutes.

3. Add vanilla carefully, will splatter in hot liquid.

4. Remove from heat and add cocoa powder and salt. Use a wooden or metal spoon to work the powder into a dough. Make sure it is as smooth as possible.

5. Spread between two layers of parchment paper and smooth with rolling pin (or whatever you have at hand) while still hot. ** I make mine about 1/4" thick, but you could make them thicker without a problem. You would get fewer pieces and since they are so rich, I find that a little piece is more than enough to satisfy!

6. Allow to cool. Use pizza cutter/knife to cut into 1"x1/2" pieces. Wrap in pieces of parchment paper/wax paper.

7. Eat and enjoy!!

 

Sprouted Almond Flour

Most recipes that call for almond flour use blanched almond flour. You can buy this at the store or in bulk online. However, you can make it yourself at home for a fraction of the cost and at the same time, you can soak them so that you get all those lovely benefits!

Recipe -

1. Place almonds in a bowl with twice the room needed for the almonds. They will grow in size when soaked, just like beans.

2. Fill bowl to top with water. You can use tap or filtered, whichever you are more comfortable with!

3. Soak for at least 8 hours and a max of 12 hours.

4. Rinse almonds thoroughly! You will be amazed at how much dirt comes off those little guys!

5. Place on dehydrator trays and dry on 145 for 24 hours and then check for crispness. They should be completely crisp all the way through with no chewiness at all. This has taken up to 4 days for me before. It all depends of the humidity in your home and the time of year.

6. Allow to cool in the dehydrator (so just leave it off) for about 8 - 10 hours. Then you can store them in an air tight container without condensation building inside the container. That would cause the almonds to get soggy and allow for mold growth!

7. Place a handful of almonds into a coffee grinder (not one that you grind coffee in. Use a dedicated nut/flax/coconut grinder!). Grind until as fine as possible, but be careful because it will turn to butter quickly and that's just a mess. Scrap powder into a sieve to catch any big pieces and then separate the two.

Big pieces in one bowl, flour in another. You will regrind the big pieces again once you've done all the flour you need. repeat until you have enough flour for your project.

You may need to take breaks if your grinder starts getting warm. It may overheat and shut down for awhile, but it will come back on if that happens... it will just need to cool down! Try to avoid that by being sensitive to how much you can grind before it even starts to overheat.

8. Use them all up and start again!

There is a lot of time involved with this process, but only about 30 minutes of active work. The rest of the time is just waiting for the dehydrator.

I may try an oven version of this process to see if that works faster without roasting the nuts.

Cinnamon Raisin Muffins

Breakfast was a really hard thing for me to deal with when starting G.A.P.S. - I don't like eggs, so I just didn't know what to do!

I tried a few bread/muffin recipes and they all came out really soggy. I mean, really soggy. 6 eggs and 1/2 cup of coconut flour does not magically turn into bread!

So I set out to find something to have with bacon and butter in the morning. I know, it's a rough life!

Part of the challenge was leaving out all fruit as it's not supposed to be eaten with anything else on the G.A.P.S. - I did add a half cup of raisins to the batch, but with a yield of 24 muffins per, you're only getting about 5 raisins in each muffin... I didn't think that was too bad! But you can leave them out if you want, I'd just up the honey a bit, since the raisin add to the sweetness of the muffin.

I found this cinnamon raisin bread recipe at Simply Living Healthy and converted it to a muffin recipe with a few changes.

Recipe - 

Yield - 24 muffins

3 cup almond flour - I sprout, dehydrate and grind my own which you can read about here.

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup flax meal

3 teaspoons baking soda

7 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup coconut oil UPDATE: 1/2 cup butter, softened

2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup raisins

3 Tablespoon cinnamon

1. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2. Mix all together and allow to sit for 10 minutes. This allows the liquid to soak into the flour a bit as the flax activates over time. 

3.  Spoon batter into muffin liners. I filled mine about 3/4 of the way full and they turned out perfectly! I did have to use two spoons to spread the batter all the way to the sides of the liners, since it is so think.

4. Bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out of center clean.

 

These freeze well and will last in the fridge for at least a week (that's as long as I can keep them "in stock" before they disappear! So they may last longer!)

Enjoy!

Marshmallows

 

 

One of my favorite things to make is homemade marshmallows... They are so ridiculously easy and SO delicious! Pre G.A.P.S. I made all of my recipes with cane syrup and sugar!

I really loved a cup of hot chocolate on a cold night with homemade marshmallows turning into gooey goodness on top... BUT when I made the decision to "go G.A.P.S." I had to let that little slice of heaven go.

Knox gelatin, cane syrup, white sugar and a dash of water made up the original recipe, but then I had the idea to just try substituting honey for the sugar syrup! Here are the results...

Recipe -

3 tbsp grass fed beef gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

1 cup honey
1/2 cup water
dash salt

2 tsp Vanilla extract*

1. Combine gelatin and 1/2 cup of water in a mixer bowl and let bloom while cooking honey syrup.

2. Combine honey, 1/4 cup water, and salt in medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and allow to remain and a rolling boil for 3 minutes.

3. Turn mixer onto low with just the gelatin in the bowl. Pour boiling syrup over gelatin** and slowly raise the speed over about 2 minutes to avoid splatter. It's HOT!

4. Add vanilla at this point and continue to beat the heck out of the mix until it is the consistency of marshmallow cream. This usually takes about 5 -10 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen and speed of your machine.

5. Pour mix into a greased 9 x 13 pan and wait!

6. After about 4 hours, use a greased pizza cutter to slice and dice those bad boys into individual marshmallows!

These will keep in the fridge indefinitely. They are best to eat alone within 3-5 days, but will melt into raw milk hot chocolate perfectly forever!

I know this seems like a lot all written out, but after you do it once and see how easy it is, you'll be making them for everything! I want to try a chocolate variation of this for 3 Musketeer copy cat candy bars!! Will post that when I try it.

Enjoy!

*A note regarding extract: I make my own with Mexican vanilla beans and vodka. Be careful when you are using extract that there is no added corn syrup or other things that are not allowed on G.A.P.S.

** Many people say this step needs to be very slow, but I've never done it that way. Dump that syrup in there and turn the mixer up!

Urban Poser has a recipe that is just like this in the ingredients, but the directions are a bit different. She coats hers in something (cocoa, coconut, arrowroot starch...) to keep them from being sticky, but I haven't found this to be a problem with mine.

About Me

Hello all!

My name is Victoria and I am starting out on my G.A.P.S. diet journey. I'm in my first month on the full diet and am having a great time going through all these recipes that I'm finding everywhere, in addition to making up my own!

I have been making homemade/handmade everything since I was a little girl which you can read about on my Rediscovering Heirlooms blog here. Because of this love of doing everything myself, I'm really getting into testing new recipes every week!

So, I thought I would share them here.

Seeing so many people know that they need to be on the G.A.P.S. diet but just can't seem to make it stick really makes me sad. I have been fighting candida for 4 years now and finally just found G.A.P.S. - only 1 month in and my symptoms are 85% GONE!

This diet works miracles and I am SO thankful to have found it... thanks to my dad and husband who read everything they can get their hands on!

If you don't know about the G.A.P.S. diet, read about it here.

Anyway, through this blog I want to show that you can stay on G.A.P.S. and still have cookies and hot chocolate (with homemade marshmallows... seriously, I have the recipe... Marsh. Mallows. O.O).

Buckle up... this test kitchen just took off!

-V