Ingredients

1/2 c. liquid honey

1/2 c. butter, margarine or oil

1 tablespoon pure vanilla

2 eggs or egg substitute

1  1/2 cup gluten-free flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3 c. pure oats  (Lara’s  from Cream Hill Estates) - certified gluten-free *

1/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Variation: If not using a date filling, add 1/4 c. raisins to cookie mixture.

* This oatmeal is quite course so I like to break down a little by pulsing a few times in a food processor.  Don’t over pulse or you’ll end up with oat flour)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat first 4 ingredients. Sift flour and soda. Add to first mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients, one at a time.  Scoop onto a non-stick pan. Press lightly with tines of a fork. Bake 10 min.

Date Filling

2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 c. water

1 1/2 c. pitted, cleaned, chopped dates.

Combine above ingredients and cook until thick. Cool.  Make cookie sandwiches as needed.

To enjoy more of the recipes in Cookies Naturally gluten-free,  see web site order page for Cookies Naturally and The Gluten-free Companion to Cookies Naturally.

(A GLUTEN-FREE VARIATION)-

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped (heat the whole squash in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. It should then be easy to cut using a sharp knife.)

8 oz.  (250 g) sliced mushrooms

2 tbsp  (25 ml) butter or margarine

1 tbsp (15 ml) curry powder

1/2 cup (125 ml ) dry white wine or chicken broth

pinch of ground nutmeg

1/2 cup (125 ml ) chopped onion

2 tbsp (25 ml) GF flour

5 cups (1250 ml) chicken broth

1 tbsp (15 ml) liquid honey

1 cup (250 ml half and half (10% cream or 2 % milk

PROCEDURE:

1. Steam squash until tender: puree in a food processor until smooth.

2. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, cook mushrooms and onions in butter until softened. Add GF flour and curry powder; cook  stirring for 5 minutes. Gradually stir in broth and wine; cook until smooth and slightly thickened. Whisk in squash, honey and nutmeg; reduce heat and simmer 15 min.

3. Stir in cream or milk and reheat to serving temperature.  Sprinkle with nutmeg to serve.

OPTIONAL: You may add GF noodles if you like.

Thanks you Jane for bringing this tasty soup to our meeting.

As mentioned in my blog, many low-fat recipes depend on  buttermilk for a rich taste while still maintaining a product compatible for a heart-healthy diet.

In my book, Muffins From The Heart, I also use buttermilk in a number of my recipes.  (see below).  Sour milk can be used if you don’t have buttermilk, you will not get the same rich taste.  Although buttermilk was never high in fat, despite  the name,  you can now buy 1% buttermilk for those who require the lowest fat products on the market.

Buttermilk Date Bran Muffins  pg. 22 (High Fibre)

1 cup natural bran

2 cups buttermilk

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1   1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cups canola oil

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup liquid honey

4 eggs or equivalent egg substitute

1 cup washed, chopped dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour milk over bran.

In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in chooped dates.

Beat together oil, applesauce, honey and  eggs .

Add liquid mixture to dry, stirring only until blended.

Fill paper-lined muffin tins about 2/3 full.

Bake until golden.  Baking time depends on size of muffin.  Usually  20 min. for a regular sized muffin.  (approx. a generous 1/4 cup batter)

Enjoy.

Baking with spelt can be trickier than baking with ordinary flour. One issue can be crumbling. 

1. Crumbling can be overcome by using a more refined white spelt flour but obviously, whole wheat spelt has more fibre. Unless avoiding wheat, try mixing spelt 50/50 with wheat as wheat flour makes less crumbly baked goods.  *(Some say no more than 10-20 % of spelt).

2. Spelt does not absorb as much liquid as wheat flour, so when replacing wheat with spelt , hold back about 1/3 of the liquid. Add more if needed.

3. Spelt does not rise as high as wheat as it has less gluten. You may need to increase the leavening to compensate for it being heavier than wheat. Spelt  however, has more protein.

4. Muffins made with spelt do not hold their shape as well as when made with wheat flour.

5. S pelt is more expensive than wheat flour but it is good to incorporate a variety of grains in your diet, depending of course, on any sensitivities you may have. Spelt is often safe for those requiring a wheat-free diet but is not gluten-free so should never be used in diet for people with celiac disease.

6. Spelt has fragile gluten, therefore requires 1/3 the kneading time that wheat flour does.

Have any tips re baking with spelt? I’d love to hear from you!

When using a non-stick pan, I find that sometimes you still need to add a little oil to keep the food from sticking. When cooking vegetables  eg. onion and garlic, sprinkle a little salt in the pan before adding the vegetables.  The salt helps bring the moisture out of the vegetables as they cook thus preventing sticking as well as the need to add oil. Using this trick, you can add vegetables that are not high in moisture content eg. coarsely chopped carrot without adding oil.

Usually, we are trying to cut back on salt but now The World Health Organization has put out new guidelines for our daily consumption of sugar. The organization says no more that 10 percent of our total energy should come from added sugar. (Sugar used in cooking, baking or in the manufacturing process as opposed to natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables.)

To figure out how much sugar is in a serving, check the nutritional label for sugar ( listed in grams) and divide that number by 4. For example, if the label says 8 grams, you are getting 2 teaspoons of sugar per serving.   

Good job those Christmas goodies are almost gone!

Don’t forget to check out my web site at www.edible-options.com

May you have a happy, healthy New Year.

Shirley Hartung

To avoid the fuss and mess Christmas Day, cook your turkey as usual but the day before. When cool, slice for serving.

 Line a clean roaster pan with  lettuce leaves that have been washed but not dried. Place a layer of sliced turkey on top, then another layer of lettuce. Repeat ending with a layer of lettuce. Put lid back on roaster. Refrigerate overnight.

Next day, preheat oven to about 325 degrees, reheat heat turkey for about  1-  1 1/2 hours with lid on the roaster. When heated through, remove lettuce  as remove layers of meat.

If lettuce is really expensive as it has been this winter, go to the store a few days ahead of when you need it and check out the quick reduce rack. Often after a few outer leaves are removed the inner part is  fine. If there is nothing there, ask the produce manager. Romaine leaves are best as the large leaves cover a large area but any greens will do.

The other plus of cooking your turkey the day ahead is that you can refrigerate the pan juices so the fat can rise to the surface which hardens and can easily be removed , making your gravy much healthier.

You might want to print off this tip and store it with your Christmas recipes. You’ll be glad you did!

HaPPY nEW yEAR

FROM

eDIBLE oPTIONS

Those of you requiring a wheat or gluten-free flour  might want to try using  coconut flour as an alternative. It has a sweet taste so is nice for baking desserts and there is no mixing with other flours required.Let me know what you think.

Don’t forget to check out my web site at www.edible-options.com

Edible Options

Having some cooking gums left from making my gum drop cake ( a replacement for  traditional Christmas cake), I decided to make my polka dot banana muffins pg. 73  in Muffins From the Heart specialty section. This is a nice Christmas morning muffin.

Polka Dot Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 cup baking gums  cut in half  ( 1 -8 oz. pkg.)  *Do not use black gums.

1/2 cup washed and dried raisins (goldden raisins are nice but regular raisins will do.)

1/4 cup chopped nuts of your choice

1/2 cup unsweetened orange juice

1/2 liquid honey

1/3 cup canola oil

3 large eggs

1/2 cup mashed, ripe banana

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flour and baking powder. Stir in gums, raisins and nuts.

Beat together juice, honey, oil and eggs. Mash banana  and add to liquid ingredients, stirring until blended. 

Add dry ingredients, mixing only until there is no longer any flour visible.

Fill mufffin liners 3/4 full and bake until tester comes out clean. Time depends on size of muffin, your oven etc. As with all muffins,  I like these muffins served warm.

Merry munching! Hope you enjoy this muffin with a difference.

Shirley

When it comes to eating only food that is grown within a 100 mile radius from where you live, certain foods can present a challenge.  Because I live in a cooler climate, I unfortunately don’t have foods that grow in more southerly locations eg. lemons.

This is where creative problem solving is needed. My friends who took on the 100 mile diet challenge replaced rhubarb juice when using a recipe requiring a little tartness. They simply cooked the rhubarb, then drained the juice off and continued with the recipe. Usually not a lot of lemon juice is called for in a recipe but leaving it out is not really an option as the end product will be missing that punch that lemon gives. In this case, rhubarb juice is used for its pucker power.

Have you come up with some creative solutions to replacing ingredients that don’t grow within a 100 miles from where you live?  We’d love to hear from you.