Best Brownies EVER

The other night Joe wanted dessert so I went online and I found this brownie recipe from Kelly the Kitchen Kop.  I also made her homemade hot fudge sauce to go with the brownies.  These brownies were so wonderful I cannot tell you how good they were and NOTHING came from a box!  Check out her recipes and her blog.  She is also offering an online Real Food For Rookies Class if you are interested in eating more real food and less processed food.

Farmer's Cheese and Yogurt and Spelt Crackers

Joe and I have started making lots of things from scratch.  No more rice mixes, pasta mixes, store bought yogurt or even bread.  We have also started purchasing raw milk from a local farm.  The raw milk has so many more nutrients that pasturiezed milk no longer has because it has been heated to high temperatures.  We have been thinking about buying raw milk for a while but after viewing this blogpost, by the Cheeseslave, we decided that we had to start buying raw milk. 

My friend, Jen, is the creator of Nourished Kitchen.  Her food philosphy and the Cheeseslaves' is based off of Weston Price Foundation.  By Jen following this food philosphy she has helped her herself and her husband cure mental illness, chronic pain, Celiac Disease, PCOS, and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.  Take a minute to read their stories - they are amazing.  Jen's story is here and her husband Kevin is here.

I have been helping Jen with her website and let me tell you - she has a TON of amazing recipes on there.  She also has been hosting online cooking classes.  Her current series is Get Cultured:  Learn How to Ferment Anything.  By fermenting your foods you make it easier on your body to get all of the nutrients out of your food. 

I have been making yogurt from scratch for quite a while now.  Here is my original recipe for yogurt.  After taking Jen's class I made homemade raw milk yogurt.  With that yogurt I made spelt crackers.  Those are the crackers you see posted above.  This weekend I also made raw milk Farmer's Cheese with fresh herbs.  That is the cheese in the picture above.  Here are the two recipes.

Yogurt and Spelt Crackers

serves: 6

time: 5 mins (active), 12 - 24 hrs (soaking), 10 mins (baking for each batch)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole grain spelt flour

• 1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

• 1 cup yogurt

• Fresh Rosemary, fresh thyme, and fresh chives

• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Method:

1. Stir three cups whole grain spelt flour and one teaspoon unrefined sea salt, one cup full fat yogurt and fresh herbs in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a dough hook.  Continue to process until the dough forms a

smooth ball.

2. Place the dough in a mixing bowl and cover it with a tea cloth. Leave the dough to rest at room temperature overnight and up to twenty four hours.

3. Once the dough has rested overnight or up to a full day, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Knead one-half cup softened butter into the dough, then divide the it into four separate

balls to make rolling it more manageable.

5. Flour your working surface and your rolling pin, place one ball of dough into the center of your work surface and roll it to 1/8-inch. Cut the dough into rounds with a biscuit cutter, or into triangles or squares with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.

6. Prick with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing and bake in an oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit until brown and crispy, about six or seven minutes.  I don't know why but mine took about 11 minutes to bake.

Farmer's Cheese with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients:

• 2 qts milk

• 1/4 cup white vinegar

• fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, and chives)

• salt

Method:

1. Bring milk to a gently boil over a moderate flame and add white vinegar gradually as you stir continuously.

2. The curd will separate from the whey, and you can turn off the heat.

3. Once the milk solids have separated from the liquid whey, drain the cheese in through a sieve lined with cheesecloth.

4. Wrap the cheese well and rinse it under cold running water.

5. Squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can and press the cheese beneath two heavy

plates.

6.  Add the fresh herbs and a dash of salt to the cheese.

7. Serve as you normally would any cheese and reserve the whey for soaking beans, legumes,

nuts and seeds.

If you sigh up for Jen's class, here, you can see a video of this process.  It makes it a lot easier to understand. 

Curtis Stone 100 Calorie Cupcakes

Don't those cupcakes look yummy. Last week on the Biggest Loser Curtis Stone showed the contestants how to make 100 calories cupcakes and everyone raved about them so I decided to give them a try.

Here is the link to the recipe I used. The only thing I did different was add about 1 tablespoon of honey to the frosting. I was serving the cupcakes to kids and I was not sure how the cream cheese frosting would go over.

For something low-cal I guess they were okay but I was expecting more of a cupcake. Maybe if I had left the frosting off they would have been better. I say this because they are similar to an angle food cake. Even though I did not love them everyone else sure did and the kids devoured them.

Would I make them again - I don't think so or if I did I would do something else for the frosting.

Super Easy Homemade Applesauce

Here is a super easy homemade applesauce receipe. Perfect for fall.

1 - Peel the apples and slice them up.
2 - Place the apples in a crock pot.
3 - Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples - as much or as little as you want - or none at all.
4 - Put the lid on the crock pot and turn it on low.
5 - Let them cook for the next 6 to 8 hours. Stir them every hour or so.
6 - The apples are ready when you can mash them with a fork.

At this point I like to leave them whole but you can mash them up. My family loves to enjoy these apples warm over vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Yummy Yummy Veggie and Bean Soup

Today I took a bunch of "stuff" we had in the house and made a yummy, veggie and bean soup. The best thing about the soup was that I did not buy anything for it. Here is a list of everything I put in the crockpot.

Chicken stock
white beans - already cooked and sitting in a bag in the freezer
black beans - already cooked and sitting in a bag in the freezer
onions
carrots
celery
broccoli
sweet potatoes
brown rice
bulgar wheat

I put everything in a crock pot and covered it with water. Then I added the seasoning. Chicken bouillon cubes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, minced onions, thyme and rosemary. I cooked this on high for about 7 hours and here are a couple of pictures of Lily enjoying a snack before dinner. We are going to enjoy this for lunch a few days this week.

Healthy Chili Recipe

Here is a super healthy chili recipe.


Celery - 2 cups chopped
One onion chopped
as much garlic as you want - chopped
1 package of extra lean ground turkey (when you are cooking the turkey you might need to add one TBS of olive oil)
saute everything together

Add 1 can of tomato sauce, 1/2 can of water and 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes (I crush these by hand as I add them in) (If you want to make a bigger batch and 2 cans of the sauce, 1 can or so of water and 2 cans of the whole peeled tomatoes)
3 cans of red kidney beans - no salt added

Let all of the cook for a bit and then add the season. Start with 1 tsp of each
chili powder
cayanne pepper (1/2 tsp) - depends on how hot you want it
italian seasoning (I use this in lots of stuff)
garlic powder
onion power
salt and pepper

Mix everything up and let it sit for a bit (15 minutes or so)

Taste it because you will need to add more of the seasoning above.

Serve up when it tastes great.

Two Grain Salad with White Beans, Tomatoes and Parmesan

In my Fitness Magazine I came across a recipe called Three Grain Salad With White Beans, Tomatoes and Parmesan. Since it had lots of fiber I decided to give it a try.

I did modify the recipe because I could not find bulgur and I would prefer balsamic vinegar over red white vinegar.

Here is my version:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup hulled barley

salt to taste

1/2 cup bulgur

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 cup white cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)

2 tomatoes

fresh basil

3 tbs olive oil

pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese to taste (I shredded just a bit over each portion)

I served this over 1 cup of spinach.

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the barley and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt; boil for 50 to 55 minutes, until barley is just tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, bring 6 tablespoons of water to a boil in a small saucepan; add the bulgur. Bring the liquid back to a boil, then cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let sit for 25 minutes, until the water is absorbed.

In a large bowl, toss together the vinegar, onion, garlic and remaining salt.

Add the grains to the vinegar mixture while still warm; toss well. Remove the garlic and stir in the beans, tomatoes, basil and olive oil; season with black pepper to taste. Fold in the Parmesan and serve.

Serving size - 1.5 cups

4 servings

For my recipe here is the nutritional break down:

Total Calories - 260 calories, 12 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs, 7.5 grams of fiber, 7.5 protein

I was getting lazy and tired while cooking this and forget or skipped the onion and garlic and that might have made a difference because my version needed some more flavor big time.