Easy Cashew Green Beans

WOW these are tasty and sooo very easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews
1-2Tbs grapeseed oil
1- 16oz package frozen green beans

Directions:

1) Heat your pan on your stove and add your frozen green beans.
2) In your food processor or coffee grinder add 1 cup raw cashews or a couple of handfuls however you would like. Then add your grapeseed oil. Blend together until you have chopped cashews.
3) Add your cashews to the cooking green beans and continue to cook until the green beans are nice and warm.
4) ENJOY!


****This recipe came from my running partner and I thank her for such an easy side dish that is very good!

Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 These cookies may look like they are burnt but they are not. They are cooked to perfection. They are made with cashew butter that I made from raw cashews that I roasted and then put into my food processor.

To see how you make cashew butter I HIGHLY recommend visiting this site to see the process in your food processor. Her images really helped me see the process so that I didn't get discouraged while making it.

I did however roast my cashews in the oven at 350 degree's F. I put 1.5 cups of raw cashew nuts in a metal pan and placed them in the oven for about 10 minutes just a little brown but not too much. This did speed up the process for making the cashew butter. Plus the taste of the cashew butter was AMAZING it just melts in your mouth.

Cashew Butter Pictures of the different stages before it becomes this BEAUTIFUL nut butter.

 

In this picture I have 2 cups of cashew butter in my mixing bowl and ready to make the cashew chocolate chip cookies.

I was really excited to see the dough I had to snap a picture of these beautiful cookies before they went into the oven. They get very large after they cook in the oven.

The GREAT part of these cookies are that the ingredients used are very simple and very easy.

Ingredients:

2 cups cashew butter
1/2 cup honey (you can substitute agave if you prefer)
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup mini chocolate chips (Enjoy chocolate chips work great or Ghirardelli mini chocolate chips)

Directions:

1) Beat together the cashew butter and the honey.
2) Next add one egg at a time until incorporated.
3) Add baking soda until combined.
3) Add chocolate chips.
4) Take a heaping spoonful and roll into a ball and press down a little bit.
5) Bake at 350 F for 5-7 minutes until brown. If they are not brown the middle of the cookie will not be cooked.
6) Take out of oven and cool on cookie sheet for about 2-3 minutes and then remove and finish cooling on a plate and ENJOY!

Peach Pizza

I used Better Batter Sicilian Crust Recipe and now for the yummy peaches on top.

Peach topping ingredients:

1/2  cup brown sugar
3 fresh peaches cut into slices
1/4 cup Better Batter Flour
2Tbs butter

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degree's F.
2) Slice peaches and place into a bowl and set aside.
3) Mix together brown sugar, flour and butter and place a thin layer on the top of your pizza crust.
4) Now place peaches on top of the brown sugar mixture to cover the pizza. Now place another layer of brown sugar and then peaches until you no longer have peaches or brown sugar left.
5) Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until the brown sugar mixture is melted and peaches are softer.
6) Once your dessert pizza is done you can top with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or eat just like this!

ENJOY!

Easy Fudge!

I found a recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie and it is called Healthy Eatmore Fudge and I thought wow this sounds terrific how hard could it be. The first time I made it the dates didn't want to be puree'd and the nuts were hard to get fine. So the more I experimented with this recipe the more I decided to CHANGE it to fit our family and to make it more fudge like.

Ingredients:

3 cups pitted dates
1.5 cups pecans, unsalted
3/4 cups walnuts, unsalted
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup melted coconut oil

Right now you are looking at the ingredient lists and going well she hasn't changed much but wait there is more!

Topping Ingredients:

3Tbs cocoa powder
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut oil


Directions:

1) Take your 3 cups of dates and place in a LARGE bowl and fill bowl with water and let the dates soak for about 2-3hrs. My dates are always dry and the original recipe says 30 minutes which isn't long enough to get the dates really soft so that you can puree them.
2) Take the nuts in 3 different batches and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder with 1/3 of your nut mixture and place into your food processor. Once this mixture resembles a meal remove and repeat for the remainder of your nuts and cocoa powder. Place the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
3) Now that your dates are all nice and soft take 1/3 of your dates and place into your food processor and pour some of your coconut oil into the dates. Your dates should be mush when you do this. Now add 1/3 of your nut and cocoa mixture to your food processor. If your mixture doesn't want to mix add a little bit of your coconut oil until you can get it to mix. Be careful not to add too much oil as it won't taste good and will be really oily. Now the magic happens you should get a really nice looking mixture. Take this and place in a separate bowl. Repeat this step for the remainder of your dates and nut mixture.
4) Take a 9x12 pan and place wax paper on the bottom and then spoon out your mixture. Use a spatula to spread and level out your fudge goodness.
5) Take your 3Tbs cocoa powder, honey and coconut oil (room temp do not melt) and whip with a mixer will be nice and creamy. Place this over your fudge you made and place in the freezer if you want to eat in the next 30 minutes or place in the fridge for a couple of hours.
6) ENJOY!

You can play with this recipe to get it to your liking. Our kids didn't enjoy the taste of banana's on their fudge hence why I completely changed the topping to fit our family needs. Plus I was having issues with the dates and figured coconut oil wouldn't hurt the recipe and it doesn't makes it more creamy!

Chicken Satay with mixed veggies

The original recipe came from Maximized Living cookbook and when I saw the curry powder in the original recipe I decided I would change up the recipe. I modified the original recipe as it didn't fit our family and good thing I did as my recipe was a total hit!

Ingredients:

2Tbs Cashew butter - our cashew butter just has cashews and salt in it.
1/2 cup Tamari sauce or coconut aminos
1/2 cup lemon juice fresh squeezed
3 cloves garlic smash through a press
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 chicken breasts

Directions:

1) Take chicken breasts and cube them and place into a glass container that you can cover with plastic wrap over night.
2) Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken and let marinade over night.
3) Take bamboo skewers and soak them in cold water for about 30-45 minutes before you place your chicken on them.
4) Put chicken on bamboo skewers and then place chicken onto a pizza pan if your cooking in the oven. Otherwise you can cook on the grill for 5 minutes each side. If cooking in the oven heat oven to 375 degree's F and place pizza pan in oven. Make sure to have a pan under your pizza pan to catch the drippings.
5) If your cooking in the oven rotate after 7 minutes and then continue to cook for another 7 minutes.
6) Take out of oven and enjoy! We paired this with a broccoli stir fry vegetables mix and I dunked mine in a little bit of Sriacha sauce.

**Original recipe you would remove the ginger, reduce the garlic by one clove, add 2Tbs curry powder, add 1 tsp of Hot Sauce and add 3 more chicken breasts.

Chinese Orange Chicken

YES you can have Orange Chicken and be gluten free at the same time. This recipe is pretty simple and is very tasty and can be a little time consuming unless you have a deep fat fryer. You will LOVE the end results as it is very very tasty.


Ingredients:

1-2lbs chicken breasts
1 cup arrowroot powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup Better Batter Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coconut milk
water for thinning out the batter
1 bottle San J Orange sauce

Directions:

1) Rinse your chicken and pat dry and cut into 1 inch pieces.
2) In one bowl place your arrowroot powder.
3) In another bowl combine your eggs, flour, baking powder and coconut milk. If batter is too thick use water to thin it out.
4) Take chicken pieces and coat with arrowroot powder then dip into wet batter and then back into the arrowroot powder and then into HOT oil. Cook until chicken is white or no longer pink in the middle.
5) Once chicken is cooked place on paper towel and continue cooking chicken until all cooked. Then take the bottle of orange sauce and coat all chicken and ENJOY!

Salsa and Cream Chicken

You heard it correctly it is very good and very easy to make and the things you can do with the leftovers are endless!

We made shredded chicken wraps with lettuce and WOW was that tasty.

Ingredients:

1 Jar Gluten Free Salsa we like Pace Garlic and Lime Verde unfortunately our Wal-Mart was out and we went with a different brand still very good just a little hot for our kids.

1 whole chicken about 4lbs

16oz heavy cream

Directions:

1) Place chicken into your crock pot.
2) Take the heavy cream and mix with full jar of salsa and pour over chicken in crock pot.
3) Place the crock pot on low for 6-8hrs or on high for 4-5hrs.
4) Pull chicken out and strain the cream mixture as it will work great for pot pie filling, pasta sauce or anything else you can think of.
5) We did chicken wraps in lettuce and they were very good with this chicken shredded. See pictures below of what it looks like.

 This is what the broth looks like after is has been filtered. I took a very fine strainer and got rid of any chicken bones and salsa pieces so that the broth is all that is left over. This is what the broth looks like after that has been completed. It's a lot of broth and you can do so many different meals with this broth. You can use this instead of water in rice to flavor up your rice. Use this where broth is required in your recipe instead of the boxed broth at the store.

Chocolate Cake Batter Pancakes

 I wanted to get a little creative with our pancakes since I had Better Batter chocolate cake mix in my freezer I wanted to give this a whirl.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Better Batter Flour
1 Cup Better Batter Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 1/2 cups coconut milk*
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs

Directions:

1) Heat your griddle before mixing your ingredients so that it is nice and hot and ready to go.
2) Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and take about 1/4- 1/2 cup and place on hot pan you may need to take your spoon and spread out the mix as it is thick.
3) Heat the first side until the edges are done and flip your pancake and cook the other side for 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy


* Any milk that you have in your house can be used for this recipe we just prefer to use coconut milk.

Madiera Cake, Pound Cake or Butter Cake

 

 I saw a lobster roll cake in the Food Network magazine and it didn't have a recipe for the pound cake that they used. They used a pre-made pound cake which doesn't work for us since we are gluten free. I went through a couple of my cook books and thought hey I can do this gluten free no problem. I wanted to test the recipe first before my husband's birthday. I will post the lobster roll cake recipe when I make it in September for his birthday. In the meantime enjoy this awesome pound cake recipe.

Ingredients:

8oz (225g) flour
1tsp baking powder
8oz (225g) unsalted butter at room temp
8oz (225g) sugar
1tsp vanilla ( I didn't have vanilla and used almond extract 1/4 tsp)
4 eggs

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place parchment paper on the bottom of a loaf pan.
2) Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
3) Place unsalted butter in your mixer and add your sugar 2Tbs at a time until combined light and fluffy and add vanilla.
4) Add one egg at a time to your butter mixture beating an additional 1 min after each egg is added.
5) Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
6) Pour your mixture into your lined loaf pan and bake for about 1-1 1/4hrs until toothpick comes out clean. The outside will be a nice golden brown.
7) Let cool on a wire rack for about 10 min and then remove from loaf pan and let cool completely.

8) ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Brownie Pie

Ingredients:

1 box of Better Batter Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
16oz container heavy cream minus the 1/3 cup
8oz's or 1/2 16oz jar of organic chunky peanut butter 
1/3 cup Agave Nectar

Directions:

1) Pre-Heat oven to 350 degree's and grease a 9-inch glass pie pan.
2) Mix all ingredients together and pour and pat into pie pan.
3) Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4) Place brownies onto cooling rack until cooled then cut out the middle portion of your brownies. Set the insides in a bowl for later use.
5) Take the rest of your heavy cream and place in your mixer and whip it until peaks are stiff.
6) Add your agave nectar to your stiff heavy cream and then add your peanut butter in heaping spoon at a time at a lower mixing speed.
7) Once the peanut butter is combined pour mixture over your brownie crust and top with left over brownies and place in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool.
8) Once cooled pull out and ENJOY a slice!

This is a softer filling for a pie if you want a pie filling that is a little more firm add one 8oz softened package of cream cheese to the whipped cream before adding your peanut butter.