Charlotte's Legal Blondies

My daughter Charlotte invented this recipe.  Very healthy and sooooo yummy!  Tastes like butterscotch.  She cooked it in our solar oven so the temperature is low and the time long.  I think it kept all the ingredients intact and flavorful. 

1 banana

2 cups dates

½ cup coconut oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 ¼ cups almond flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ cup chopped pecans

Put banana, dates and coconut oil in blender and process until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla and process again.  In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.  Add blender contents and mix well.  Mix in pecans.

Spoon into greased brownie pan.  Bake at 250F for 1 hour.  


Variation: if you want to make Brownies add 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.  I love brownies, but amazingly, the blondies were even better!

GAPS Almond-coconut baking mix and Breakfast Casserole

3 cups almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together well and store in ziplock bag in the refrigerator.


BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

6 eggs
2/3 cup coconut milk
1 chopped onion
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped mushrooms
½ cup almond-coconut baking mix
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups shredded cheddar or Gruyère (Swiss) cheese or Parmesan
7 strips bacon*, cut in halves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Heat oven to 350° F.
Cover the bottom of the 8 inch casserole with the bacon.  Bake until crisp.  Turning over is not necessary.  Remove casserole from oven.
Sauté the onions, peppers and mushrooms in a frying pan with a little butter, coconut oil or ghee. After 5 minutes add the spinach and sauté 5 more minutes.
In a medium bowl, mix the eggs and coconut milk.  Add the cheese and the baking mix.
Spoon the onion/spinach over the bacon, then the batter.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until it puffs up, browns slightly and no longer wiggles when shaken gently. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

* GAPSters in Ottawa are lucky to have the Sausage Kitchen where they make additive-free, sugar-free bacon.  If you don't have access to GAPS-edible bacon, put 1/3 cup coconut oil or ghee in the bottom of the casserole and place in the oven until melted.  Proceed with the rest of the recipe starting at "Remove casserole from oven."

Asparagus Velouté

A velouté (French for velvety) is a very smooth soup.  The asparagus and coconut flavors blend surprisingly deliciously.  Super easy too - and we GAPSters always have lots of chicken broth on hand!

Asparagus Velouté

2 cups chicken broth

1 bunch asparagus

2 cups coconut milk

1.  Rinse the asparagus. 

2.  Put about one cup of the chicken broth in each of two saucepans.  Bring both to a simmer on medium heat.

3.  Meanwhile, break the asparagus into 1 to 2 inch pieces with your hands.  Put the all the tips in one saucepan, and the rest except the pieces that are too tough in the other.  Simmer for about 8 minutes, until the asparagus is tender.

4.  Measure the coconut milk in your blender jar.  Add the contents of the saucepan that has the middle of the asparagus.  Process on high until completely smooth.

5.  Pour the blender contents into the second pan.  Mix and check seasonings (salt, pepper).  Serve lukewarm. 

Chia-fennel purée

I've been experimenting with savory dishes based on chia seeds.  This one turned out quite nicely, and is a good substitute for mashed potatoes. Kinda rounds out the meal, especially if you serve another dish with a nice rich sauce that cries for something to sop it up with. And chia gives you a full feeling like no other GAPS-legal food.  I searched through many

Make the chia gel ahead of time: the longer the chia seeds soak, the firmer the gel gets - meaning the less of those expensive seeds you use.  What's more, the longer they soak, the more nutrients you get from the seeds.  You can make the chia-broth gel in large batches to add to mashed carrots, squash, or other vegetable of your choice.  The gel keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator.

Chia-fennel purée


3 Tbs chia seeds
½ cup broth, seasoned to taste

1 onion, chopped
¼ cup butter, ghee or coconut oil
1 bulb fennel, chopped
½ cup broth, seasoned to taste

Prepare chia gel:

Mix chia seeds into broth in a container with a lid.  Stir once or twice then refrigerate 8 hours or more.

Cook fennel:

Sauté fennel in butter in a large pan on low for 5 minutes.  Add fennel and sauté for 5 minutes, then add broth and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently (do not cover pan).

Blend together:

Put chia gel and fennel in blender or food processor.  Process until smooth.  Check seasonings.

Serve warm.

Eggnog Mousse

Looking for another way to add coconut oil to our daily fare, I've been tweaking this recipe to get the creaminess and spice just right.  It is a light, frothy, creamy dessert with that wonderful familiar eggnog flavor.

In addition to guaranteeing 2 Tablespoons coconut oil per serving (estimating that the coconut milk contains at least 15% fat), it's also an easy way to give your family the fantastic nutrition contained in raw egg yolks.  No one in my family likes them in broth, and then if you reheat the leftover broth, the nutrients get altered anyway.  Here the yolks stay cool during the whole process. If you can't do egg yolk, the recipe still works.

With a tight lid, the mousse can keep in the fridge for 5 days - betcha it won't stay around long enough for you to worry about it!

Makes 8 servings.  

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups coconut milk, warmed
2/3 cup coconut oil, warmed until melted
1/3 cup honey or 12 dates
0 to 4 raw egg yolks*
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package unflavored gelatin

Equipment: blender

Note: for ease in measuring, I measure the coconut milk in the blender jar, then take some out to warm.  The idea is to get the blender contents over 76 F to keep the coconut oil liquid while the ingredients get mixed.

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients except gelatin in blender.  Process on low until well mixed. If using dates, process on high for 1 minute, then turn to low. Remove cover while still running and drizzle in the gelatin.  Process on high for 30 seconds. 

2. Place the blender jar in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. The liquid should now be very slightly thickened, very creamy, not yet cold.  Put blender jar back on base and process on high for 1 full minute.  This puts air bubbles in the thick liquid to get the fun & frothy mousse texture.

4. Pour into individual serving bowls with lids (individual yogurt containers for example).  Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.  Sprinkle with additional nutmeg if desired.

* The egg yolks are not necessary to the recipe.  If raw egg yolks are not part of your diet, you can leave them out; if you only have 2 egg yolks from using the whites elsewhere, just use those, and so on.  I usually  put in 2 to 4 yolks, depending on my egg supply, how desperate I am to get nutrients, etc.

Do NOT let your kids play in the sandboxes!

I've been reading the Stanley Medical Institute research on schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis. This is a well-written news article about the behavior of rats infected by toxoplasma. You may never have heard of "toxo" but recent findings show that it is not a mostly benign parasite as was believed.  And about a quarter of all human beings are infected! There are indications that toxo could be the cause (or at least a cause) of schizophrenia.  Combine this with the fact that toxo reproduces inside our beloved housecats, and that a significant percentage of schizophrenics were exposed to cats in childhood, and it gets pretty scary.  Exposure to cats is not even necessary: toxo oocytes (eggs) are everywhere, in the dirt, the air, even in meat, since the protozoa can infect any mammal (but freezing and cooking kills them).

Toxo oocytes are most abundant in places where cats defecate - like your neighborhood sandbox.

Toxoplasma affects behavior.  In rats, toxoplasmosis causes its hosts to crave the odor of cat urine, causing the rat's virtual suicide by becoming dinner for the feline, where the toxo can finally complete its life cycle.  The parasite acts by forming cysts in the brain, in particular the amygdala, center of fear-related behavior. Is this the reason for the paranoia component of schizophrenia?  Toxo also has the genes encoding two critical enzymes needed to make dopamine, which individuals with schizophrenia are thought to have in excess (Wikipedia has an article titled "Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia").  Toxoplasmosis is correlated with higher suicide rates, increased activity, loss of concentration, slower reaction time.  All of these traits help the cats catch infected rats, but what happens to the poor humans who get this infection?  "The effects of T. Gondi on rodents' brains are highly specific", says the research paper.  So, schizophrenia would be the effect of very specific chemical activity, meant for manipulation of rodent behavior, on the human brain. 

Some excerpts from the Stanley paper:

From the abstract:

"Toxoplasma gondii [is] a protozoan parasite that causes toxoplasmosis and is carried by cats and other felines. Until recently, toxoplasmosis was thought to be a problem only for pregnant women who, if they became infected with T. gondii during their pregnancy, risked having the organism cause damage to the growing fetus. This is why pregnant women are advised to not change the litter in the cat litter box. Infection with T. gondii in other adults and children was thought to be either asymptomatic or to cause an influenza-like or mononucleosis-like syndrome. It now seems possible that T. gondii may be associated with schizophrenia and perhaps other psychiatric syndromes."

From the main text: 

"Assuming that cats defecated in a completely random manner, the researchers calculated that each square foot of ground would be burdened with between 9 and 434 infected T. gondii oocysts each year. [...]  Cats, of course, do not defecate randomly but favor specific outdoor spots, meaning that such spots are inevitably burdened with a very large number of oocysts." 

"Children’s play areas and sandboxes are common places for cats to defecate because they can use the area’s loose soil or sand to bury their feces. [...]each sandbox would contain approximately 85 million viable oocysts at any given time."

"As the cat feces dry, the oocysts may become aerosolized. They can thus be inhaled by a person changing cat litter or just walking in an area where cats have defecated."

" Unwashed vegetables from gardens can also carry oocysts. Studies have also shown that cockroaches and flies can carry oocysts from cat feces to fruits and vegetables." 

"In countries like France, which has a high rate of T. gondii-infected individuals, the most important source of transmission is thought to be undercooked meat. [...] The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis has decreased sharply in the United States and Europe in the past forty years  It has been speculated that this is because of the increased use of frozen meat, since freezing kills the tissue cysts."


"Humans may become infected with T. gondii at any time in life. In immunocompetent individuals, the infection is asymptomatic 90 percent of the time. In the other 10 percent, the "primary infections cause a mild, mononucleosis-like illness with low-grade fever, malaise, headache, and cervical lymphadenopathy."

"It is clearly established that congenital infections with T. gondii, especially early in pregnancy, can produce intracranial calcifications, mental retardation, deafness, seizures, and retinal damage."


" there is evidence that the effects of T. gondii on the brain are highly specific. For example, in experiments in which mice have been infected, the mice may have profound and widespread brain pathology and deficits in motor coordination and sensory deficits, but their cognitive skills remain relatively intact "


"In areas where felines are rare, the prevalence rates of both toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia appear to be low. "

"Antipsychotic medications have been shown to have antiprotozoal activity."

 

Fermented ketchup. Caveat on sauerkraut.

I'm finally getting around to making fermented ketchup, using this recipe:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-ketchup/

Didn't have homemade tomato paste but used my crockpot to boil down 2 bottles of strained tomatoes.  Took a few hours and needed frequent stirring.  But I was in the kichen all day anyway.  Here I am at 11 p.m. finally putting the ingredients together.  Also don't have any whey right now, so I'm using skj (sauerkraut juice) for my starter.  I'm typing while the sea salt dissolves and I'll give it another stir and taste before spooning into the mason jar for fermentation.

Next time I make sauerkraut I'm going to try this recipe:
http://nourishedandnurtured.blogspot.ca/2011/05/thyroid-goitrogens-and-recipe-for.html
This page has information you should know about sauerkraut.  It may affect your thyroid, so eat it in moderation. 

UPDATE: Trying to find out more about the goitrogen content of sauerkraut has been quite confusing.  Some sources say lacto-fermentation causes the cabbage to have MORE  goitrogens, others say it suppresses goitrogens.  I'd be grateful for some authoritative info on this.