I’ve told you before what a huge fan I am of Elana’s Pantry.  Well, there are several modifications that I made to one of her recipes that I feel qualify me to post it as my own (with much credit to Elana’s inspiration!!)  This grain-free breakfast has only the smallest hint of sweetener, but it is low on the glycemic index and two small scones for breakfast with some kerrygold butter held me over all morning until a late lunch!

Some fun features of this recipe include the use of duck eggs, which I highly recommend for baking. They give rise and fluff like none other!  I also used thrifty Trader Joe’s almond meal instead of the more spendy Bob’s Red Mill or other blanched almond flours.  I find that even though Elana only vouches for the particular brands of almond flour in her book, I find that TJ’s works great.  And at $3.99 per lb, you can’t beat it! I was also really excited to try out my long-searched for find: Coconut Nectar! It’s a great, low-glycemic, minimally processed, low-fructose alternative to agave nectar. I found it when I was in Califoria. Coconut Secret is the brand, but I haven’t been able to find it in any Oregon stores, so I stocked up in California.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Scones
Makes 14 scones

I used fresh, pitted cherries for this recipe, but dried would be fine as well!

2.5 cups of almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (not GAPS allowed)
2 eggs
2 TBS coconut nectar (honey works too)
1/4 tsp liquid stevia
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup pitted, fresh cherries
1/4 cup  73% dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or simply grease with butter.

In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until combined. Add melted butter and coconut nectar or honey, and stevia.

Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.

Drop about 1/4 cup at a time of dough onto prepared baking sheets and shape as desired (I like the triangle look personally).

Bake for 15 minutes.  Serve with butter or whipped cream for a delicious, filling, low-glycemic breakfast!

This post has been submitted to Real Food Wednesday and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday!

Waffles have got to be the hardest thing to give up when you go off of grains, but no longer!  I’ve been experimenting with grain-free waffles for a while, but it’s really hard to find a good texture and taste that works.  But I think I’ve landed on a winner!Angela, a friend of mine (whom I met through this blog!) is the amazing mother of two children on the GAPS diet.  She shared this recipe with me, inspired by one found at Mark’s Daily Apple, another great grain-free blog!

These waffles are a great protein-rich way to start the day, with good fats and a negligible amount of carbohydrates.  Top with fresh sliced fruit, butter, a little whipped cream…..or just eat plain!

Grain-Free Waffles
-Makes 4 Waffles-
(Adapted from Mark’s Daily Apple)

4 eggs
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup coconut milk (full fat) or dary milk

1. Scramble the eggs. 

2. Add the vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, and milk.

3. Add the coconut flour and mix until there are no more lumps.

4. Pour into hot waffle iron and cook for about 5 minutes, until done.

5. Enjoy!

*These freeze well; make a large batch on Sunday or Saturday and have quick, grab-and-go frozen breakfasts throughout the week!

Sorry for the poor quality picture!

There was a time when I thought kale was just a decoration for salad bars.  Who knew it was such a nutritious green (is there any other kind?) with so much versatility.  The challege, of course, is getting kale to appeal to wee ones, or anyone else with greenophobia.   What follows is a delicious, low-carb, nourishing snack reminiscent of potato chips!

It was a total coincidence that the famed Gluten-Free Girl recently posted her thoughts on kale chips around the same time I began this blog post. As I was about to write this post, I found her recipe and thought I would halt the presses, and do more recipe development from her inspiration. 

My version differs quite signficantly; she uses slick Italian Lacinato Kale, I use regular garden-variety kale (both work!). I have not tried using Red Russian Kale, and I’m not sure the texture would hold up quite as well. If you try it, let me know.  Lacinato Kale is sleek and firm, and easy to work with.  Our CSA share last week happened to be drowning in several varieties of regular “salad bar” kale, and it worked great.

Many kale chip recipes around the ‘net (and there are many!) use olive oil as their fat of choice.  I have tried olive oil and it certainly does the job, however after researching more about vegetable oils, I am not recommending using olive oil to cook at high temperatures. Olive oil is best used in salad dressings or for drizzling on to vegetables.  You can get by with low heat sauteeing, but even that is questionabe in my mind. The trouble is, the fat molecules in olive oil are monosaturates and polysaturates, which are much less stable in high heat.  The best fat for cooking at high heat is saturatd fat: butter, coconut oil, poultry fat, or bacon drippings.  You can even use a blend of saturated fat with a bit of olive oil, as the saturated fat helps stablize the mono- and poly-unsaturated fats in the olive oil.

These chips are flavored with salt, pepper, nutritional food yeast, and garlic powder.  Nutritional yeast is a great flavoring that also contains many B-vitamins and other essenial nutrients. 

Kale is a low-calorie, high fiber, nutrient-rich green. It is extremely high in beta-carotene and vitamin K. For more reasons than you ever needed to eat kale, go here.

Kale Chips

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale (lacinato or curly leaf, purple or green)
2 T bacon grease, or coconut oil
1 T olive oil (optional; if omitting, add 1 more T of coconut oil)
1 T nutritional yeast
1/2 t garlic powder
sea salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350. Rinse kale under running water to remove all grit and dirt.  Spin in a salad spinner or shake well to remove excess water.

2. Remove kale from stalks and cut into bite-sized pieces.  Place in a large bowl, and toss with melted oils/drippings and seasonings.  NOTE: Depending upon the size of your bunch of kale, you may need to adjust the amount of oil.You don’t want the kale too soggy; just slightly “dressed” as in a salad dressing.

3.  Place kale into a large roasting pan in a thin layers.

4. Place in oven and roast for about 20 minutes, checking and stirring every 5 minutes.  Kale will be done when it is crispy and bright green.

5. Remove from oven, let cool briefly, and enjoy!  These are tasty and addictive! Enjoy!

We have come past the middle-mark of Lent, the days are getting longer. Spring is certanly in the air and all around us.  The world is renewing; apple blossoms and tulips open forth and the old, dead leaves and branches of winter are suddenly transfigured in green.  I love spring.  Lent can often be thought of as a time of depravation, especially at this point in the fast…and perhaps, if you’re like me, you’ve slipped up a little bit and had a bite or two of meat (or whatever it was you were fasting from!).

Well, there are a little over 2 weeks left, and if you’re tired of spending gobs of money on shrimp and scallops (oh, the irony!) to try and stay low-carb and nutrient dense, then I have some ideas for keeping the fast in a thrify, ultra-simple way:

This past weekend I stumbled upon an inspiring quote about fasting:

“fasting in a larger context, means to abstain from that which is toxic to mind, body, and soul.  A way to understand this is that fasting s the elimination of physical, emotional, and menta toxins from our organism, rather than simply cutting down or stopping food intake. Fasting for spiritual purposes usually involves some degree of removal of oneself from worldy responsibilities. It can mean complete silence and social isolation during the fast which can be a great revival to those of us who have been putting our energy outward.”  -Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD

I also love the idea that fasting for spiritual reasons literally allows our lower, digestive energies to be released and move up into the heart, where our focus and energy should always remain.  As a devout “ortho-foodie”, I must confess this can be a core struggle for me.  With that in mind, I decided to take this week and really do a liquid fast with one meal per day. 

I will share my favorite list of ideas for healthy liquid fasting and simple, thrifty meals.  I don’t advocate imposing this on small children or unwilling spouses, however.  I’ve found that by not worrying about what I’m going to eat at each meal that’s “kosher” for Lent, I can allow my energy to focus on that which my children need to eat (which usually involves lots of eggs, dairy, and meat) and I just drink my liquids or eat very simple meals. Here are my thrifty meals during the fast:

Liquids

*Fresh juices in the blender or vita-mix: 1 avocado, a few handfuls of fresh greens such as dandelions, turnip, collards, or kale, 1/2 of an apple, 2-3 cups of filtered water, juice of 1 lemon, and a 1/2 cup of  berries.  This is a little bland and somewhat bitter, but I’m going for low sugar. Very filling and cleansing.

*Green Tea or Herbal Tea with a spoonful of melted coconut oil to provide nourishing fats and help regulate metabolism.  Herbs to consider drinking in the springtime include dandelion root, nettle leaf, peppermint, or your favorite!  Green tea is especially high in antioxidant and has calming properties that cancel out the effects of the caffiene to some extent.  During the day, when I’m feeling the need for something warm and filling, I turn to tea with coconut oil instead of food first.

*Kombucha is one of my favorite cleansing drinks, made by fermenting sweet tea.  Kombucha totally curbs my hunger cravings, provides energy and vitality, and is a great liver detoxifier.  Kombucha can be made very simply at home for about $0.50 per gallon.  Check out my resources page to invest in a starter and get brewing! If you prefer to purchase kombucha, Fred Meyer(a Kroger affliate in the NW) has them on sale 2/$5 this week!

*Miso Broth: My hubby makes the absolute best simple, miso soup in the world. He begins with a hefty tablespoon of miso, 1/4 tsp of  thai red curry paste, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and some seaweed flakes.  He places the ingredients into a bowl and pours boiling water over all.  This is pure comfort food, and mineral-rich, low carb comfort food at that!

*Master Cleanse Lemonade- Take 8 oz of filtered water and add the juice of 1-2 lemons.  Add 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and 1 tsp. of Grade B maple syrup (or more to taste).  This is said to be very helpful for liver congestion and has even helped people to shed some unwanted pounds!

Sensible Dinners:

To break the “fast” (either in the morning or evening, or to bookend the days) I chose simply prepared, in-season vegetables such as asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, or squashes and either roast the veggies and eat them alone, or cook them in a soup.

I’ve also been doing a lot with navy beans and lentils.  Sprouted, especially, these GAPS-friendly legumes can be eating lightly steamed on salads, in soups, or pureed and cooked as “patties”.  But I especially enjoy a simple soup of navy beans, garlic, and wilted greens. Laden, of course, with my favorite spices and chopped seasonal veggies. 

Here are some other simple ideas:

*Roasted Vegetables: Seasonal veggies are always the cheapest, and frozen works just fine too. I love to toss cauliflower or asparagus with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast and roast in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes.  The kids LOVE it and devour their veggies when made this way!

*Simple salad: I love to take lettuce and top it with creamy chunks of avocado and sprinkle with baby shrimp. I also top it with a bit of my homemade PurpleKraut (available to Portland area folks to order!)

*Almonds or Pistachios with Raw Veggies and Hummus:  Nuts alone can be a simple meal for me, but with some fresh raw veggies (carrots, peppers, celery, etc.) dipped in a lima-bean hummus (if you’re on the GAPS diet, otherwise the traditional will do, just substitute cooked lima beans for garbanzos).

*Apples and Nut Butter: Is a delicious and simple meal or even dessert, due to the extra sweetness.

*Sauteed Scallops with Garlic and Green Beans is utterly simple and delicious.

*Shredded Veggie Stir-FryThis involves simply shredding cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, and onions and whatever else suits your fancy and sauteing in a bit of oil and herbs of choice. I even add a few Tablespoons of hummus to make it “creamy”. 

What are your favorite simple, real-food Lenten meals that you can fix easily without much stress? 

Low Carb & Lenten Main Dish Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:
organic lettuce or baby greens (sales and coupons abound for these, more about this tomorrow!)  ($0.50)
1/2 cup of non-starchy veggie (cucumbers, bell peppers, red onions, whatever you want!)  ($0.25)
1/2 an avocado, cubed   ($0.50)
1/2 cup of olives              ($0.50)
1/4 cup of sunflower seeds or chopped nuts   ($0.10)
1/4 cup of cooked, tiny bay shrimp    ($0.50)
1/4 cup of cooked navy beans, cooked from dry             ($0.25)
1-2 TBS of lacto-fermented vegetables (pictured here is my “PurpleKraut”).   ($0.25)
1 TBS of homemade balsamic vinaigrette (optional, see recipe below)   ($0.50)

Layer all ingredients in order listed above in a salad bowl. Toss to coat.  This is surprisingly filling and delicious!

Total Cost: $3.35

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, smashed (optional)
1 TBS flaxseed oil

Mix all ingredients together.

This post has been a part of Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and $5 Dinner Challenge!

So this post is meant to inspire those who think a healthy, low-carb, gluten-free, nourishing meal costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.   This meal had all of the health in none of the time and hardly any cost.

I estimate that this is basically a $5.00 dinner because I took an $8.00 roast and split it in half. I plan to use the rest of the meat at the end of the week for “barbecue beef”.  I probably used a little over a dollar’s worth of produce; a few handfuls of arugula for a side salad, a burdock root and a few carrots, some onions, celery, and assorted spices. 

On the salad I plopped some herbed chevre (a deal at Grocery Outlet) and a few Cajun walnuts that were part of a homemade gift basket.  I added some coleslaw leftovers (a deliciously simple blend of sliced apples, red onions, green cabbage, homemade mayo, and a touch of pomegranate vinegar) which thankfully keep for a while in the fridge!

The roasted veggies were simply burdock root (think parsnip) and carrots cut into small cubes, tossed with dried thyme, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  This could have been added to the pot roast, but I wanted a more crisp-tender flavor, so I threw them in during the afternoon.  If you needed advanced prep, consider cutting all the veggies and mixing the herbs/spices in advance and so they would be ready to throw in right when you get home.  I convection-roasted them for about 30 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes or so.  They turned out deliciously crispy on the outside, tender on the inside!

The roast was a spur-of-the-moment creation based on what I had on hand, which I threw into the crockpot in the morning:

 1) I sliced two onions and covered the base of the crockpot with the onions.

2) I added the rump roast, to which I had inserted about 8 peeled garlic cloves into random slits I made with my knife.

3) I generously covered the roast with dried basil, 21-seasoning mix from Costco, dried leeks, sea salt, and pepper.

4) On top of all that, I drizzled pomegranate molasses (something I got in a gift basket last year). I’m told that this is a great stand-in for Worcheshire sauce. 

5) Over the whole thing, I poured about a cup of homemade beef broth.

6) I cooked it on low for about 8 hours, and after 7 hours I shredded the meet with a fork, added about 8 sticks of celery and let it cook another hour.

Afterthoughts:

This made the entire house smell like heaven today. The kids devoured their meat and my son loved the roasted veggies (my daughter needs to avoid starch, and thankfully she naturally does!).  My daughter did eat an arugula salad, which kind of shocked me!  There are plenty of leftovers with this meal and I plan to take the pan juices (with all the onions/leeks/garlic flavors) and blend them up with some tomato paste, pomegranate molasses, dijon mustard, and a hint of chipotle powder to make a BBQ sauce to serve on the leftovers Saturday night.

I must say, this meal is grain-free, low-glycemic (as long as you go easy on the roasted veggies, keep them to 15% of your meal), nourishing and not too spendy!  And I promise when you eat this way, you start to go longer between meals, not needing snacks for 4-5 hours (seriously) and feeling satisfied for longer periods of time.  Ultimately, that saves money in the long run!

This post is being shared with the good folks at “Tempt my Tummy Tuesday“.

Subscription update:  I am in the process of getting automatic, normal subscription options on this blog. Until then, if you’d like to receive old-fashioned e-mail updates, send me a note at carrie [at] organicthrifty [dot] com.

Yesterday, however, I was so excited to “harvest” 10 quarts of bone broth made from 100% grassfed cow bones. After 72 hours simmering on the stove, it was finally time.  I always like to have an amply supply of ready-made beef bone or chicken broth on tap for making soups and sauces.

Why Broth?

According to Sally Fallon’s article called Broth is Beautiful:

Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons–stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

Many of us are mineral-deficient, and the mineral supplements we take are not very bio-available.   Broth is not only super nutritious, it’s so cheap and simple to make!  It’s amazing what a difference in flavor cooking in broth produces!

Bone broth also contains gelatin, which Sally Fallon further expounds on in her article:

“Although gelatin is not a complete protein, containing only the amino acids arginine and glycine in large amounts, it acts as a protein sparer, helping the poor stretch a few morsels of meat into a complete meal. During the siege of Paris, when vegetables and meat were scarce, a doctor named Guerard put his patients on gelatin bouillon with some added fat and they survived in good health.”

To read the rest of the article, go here.

As for the price breakdown, I have a source for beef bones locally and can get them for $0.50 per lb!!!  I use 1-2 lbs of bones at a time, along with the “ends” of the celery hearts (you know, the part you always throw away), a few carrots, and 2 large onions. Oh, and I always throw in a sheet of kelp (the see vegetable) which they say adds lots of additional trace minerals.  I put it all into an 8 gallon stock pot and simmer for about 3 days.

Upon harvest, I estimate that I easily obtained about 3 gallons of beef broth, and I spent maybe $1.50 at the most for 3 gallonsof broth!  This is mineral-rich, flavor-rich broth adds so much bioavailable nutrition, and enables me to stretch my meals endlessly almost.  What better way to utilize some unappealing leftovers then to mix them with delicious bone broth?  Better yet, is there any more inspiring way to clean out the pantry than to create your own soup?

Here are a few tips for making Thrifty Bone Broth:

1) Find a source of grass-fed beef, preferably farm direct, and ask about bones. Often butchers just throw these big bones away, so you might score a really good deal!  You’re looking for large femur and knuckle bones. 

2) Ask your butcher at Whole Foods or other health food store if they can order bones for you. These often come at a very fair price.

3) Save any ribs or bones from steaks that you eat in the freezer. Continue to add meat scraps until you have enough to make broth. This goes for chicken bones as well (note: I never by boneless chicken anymore; not only is it more expensive, but you don’t get the double-bonus of bones to make into broth at the end!)

4) Same with veggies; start saving the “butts” of your celery, carrot shavings/tops, and random pieces of veggies that can become a “stock kit” in your freezer.

5) When cooking your broth, assemble all ingredients in a pot with water.  Add 1-2 TBS of vinegar and let it sit, unheated, for 30 minutes to an hour. The vinegar, being acidic, acts to draw the minerals out of the bones so that they are released into the broth and bioavailale!

6) Once you begin cooking, you will see “scum” form at the top of the broth. Gently skim this off. These are the impurities rising from the cooking process.

So, for Day 2 of my Fridge and Pantry Cleanout I essentially filled my fridge and freezer even more with a stash of bone broth…..but I utilized a bunch of veggies that were going bad for the broth, as well as some onions from the pantry, as well as a couple pounds of bones.  I still have a huge box of bones in my freezer….I estimate these will get me through half the year at least, but we’ll see!

Tune in tomorrow to see what the menu plan for the week is, as I plan to cook from only what’s in the fridge, pantry, and freezer this week!

As promised, I’m declaring the entire month of January a “Fridge and Pantry Cleanout” month whereby every meal will be formulated from stuff I have on hand in the fridge, freezer, other freezer, storage shed, or pantry.  I just finished my proposed menu plan for the week, and I’ve gotta say, I think I’m going to be able to easily make it through the month of January (possibly February too) easily without buying much of anything.

My rules for No-Spend January are:

1) Use everything I have on hand to create all of our meal plans.

2) No going out to eat (unless we have a gift card, or it’s our anniversary—January 13th).

3) There is a $10 spending allowance per week for fresh produce, household items, and eggs. Oh, and maybe organic cream. The husband can’t live without that!  But since we have a winter CSA and a good stockpile of household items (I make lots of cleaners and stuff) we should really only be spending our weekly money on eggs & cream.  Alas, I do not yet have a hen or a cow :( 

4) Post a “before and after” picture of the meal I created, the recipe, and approximate cost breakdown (if appropriate) and how the family liked it.

5) All meals contain real food and are grain-free and have a macro-nutrient ratio of 30/30/40 (protein/fat/unrefined carbs).

So today, I started out by building a meal around something that’s been hanging around the depths of my fridge for about a year and a half. Back in fall 2008, a friend and I went to a local orchard to pick plums for $.80/lb.  I picked a lot of plums.  I dehydrated many of them, ate a lot fresh, and experimented with lacto-fermentation for about 2-3 quarts of them.  Well, I have to be honest that after lacto-fermenting them, they lost all appeal for me. I just wasn’t interested in trying them! But they’ve been on my conscience for several months now, and it was finally time to use them.

I also had a nice pack of organic, free-range Trader Joe’s drumsticks in the freezer (the dear daughter’s absolute favorite) and I thought I would build on the “Asian plum chicken theme”.  It turned out that my trusty Better Homes & Gardens cookbook had a recipe that was easily adaptable.

Plum Chicken with Cabbage
serves 8

1 package of 6 organic, free-range chicken drumsticks ($4.35)
1 onion, sliced into rings ($0.25)
2 cups of pitted, lacto-fermented (or canned) plums ($0.20)
1/8 cup of unpasteurized nama shoyu (aka soy sauce) ($0.25)
4 garlic cloves ($0.10)
1 ” piece of fresh ginger ($0.05)
1-2 Tablespoons of raw honey ($0.25)
1/2 tsp five spice powder ($0.05)
2 cups of shredded savoy cabbage ($0.50)
1 cup chopped celery ($0.25)
lacto-fermented ginger carrots, for garnish ($0.25)

Total : ~$6.50

For this meal only: $3.25

In a 6 quart crock pot, place the sliced onions.  Top with the drumsticks (mine were frozen). Meanwhile, in blender, blend the plums, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and five spice powder.  Pour over the chicken.  Cook for about 6 hours on low (or at least that’s what I did).  Add shredded cabbage and celery and cook for 30 minutes until veggies are slightly tender but not completely limp.  Serve with lacto-fermented ginger carrots and pass the hoisin sauce (we happened to have a little left from a long time ago that was still good).

The Outcome:

Very good! My 4 year old gobbled up the chicken but ignored the cabbage. We had a friend who cleaned his plate and enjoyed it, and I thought it was a very tasty, refreshing meal (as did my husband). And, I have two large pyrex bowls leftover, which will provide for two more meals for us this next week. So overall, I would say $6.50 for 3 meals makes this meal officially a “$5.00 dinner”, even with using organic, free-range chicken. This would have tasted great sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and scallions (which I didn’t have).  The chicken is really flavorful and falls right off the bone, which makes it easy to “stretch” the chicken further.  My daughter was the only one who insisted on having her own drumstick.

Leftover suggestions: Wrap with a lettuce leaf for Asian-inspired lettuce wraps, add to chicken broth for an Asian-inspired chicken soup.

Some thoughts: For a family of 4 plus 1 male guest, this meal made plenty with leftovers.  I think it’s so nice and satisfying to know that you can use high quality, organic ingredients and eat a filling, grain-free, low carb meal!  The dark meat of the drumsticks has more fat (which is a good thing; it will fill you up!) and also contains more minerals. It’s also the thriftiest part of an organic, free-range chicken to buy. This meal would obviously be way cheaper with conventional chicken, but knowing what I know about how these chickens are raised, I prefer organic. I figure that the extra money I pay is providing more nutrients (organic, free-range meat has more omega-3s than conventional and more nutrients as well) which means that ultimately I’m eating less calories to consume the nutrients I need. 

Thus concludes Day One of the Fridge and Pantry Cleanout. Join me tomorrow as I piece together another meal from the “fragments”…I press on until I can reach all the way into the back of my fridge, freezer, pantry, and storage shed!

If you’d like to “subscribe” to this blog, I have a ghetto way of doing it: You e-mail me: carrie [at] organicthrifty [dot] com and ask me to add you to my subscription list. You’ll get an e-mail whenever a new post is up. Or you can follow on twitter! 

Also: Do you have any delicious, filling ways of cooking Butternut Squash or Pumpkin that are Grain-Free? I have enough in storage to last me till kingdom come and need some inspiration!  E-mail me (see above) if you have any ideas!

I’m not sure what it is about the crispy, crunchy taste of something slightly salty and flavorful, but it’s something I still have a weakness for. Since going grain-free, our “cracker and chip” options are few, but whenever possible I love to transform an otherwise bland vegetable into something delicious and enticing for my kids!

Eggplant chips may not sound all that appeaing, but trust me: you’ve never had eggplant like this before!  This is a rather time-consuming labor of love, but SO WORTH IT! These eggplant chips begin as thinly sliced eggplant– about 1/4 of an inch.  They are brushed with a marinade of your choice (I used the Cilantro Marinade in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon) and then broiled for 10 minutes; 5 minutes per side (watch them!!!).

After all the slices have been broiled, they are transferred to a dehydrator OR cooked at the lowest possible temperature in the oven for several hours so they can become dry and crisp.  So tasty and convenient for packing into kids’ school lunches, and so healthy!

By the way, here’s the gist of what I do for the Cilantro Marinade:

Cilantro Marinade:

1 bunch of cilantro
3-5 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt (0r more to taste)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Blend all of these ingredients in your food processor to form a paste.  Brush both sides of sliced eggplant with marinade mixture. Proceed with “recipe” above.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making a marinade, I suppose just a brush of olive oil, salt & pepper, and some garlic (powder?) sprinkled on the eggplant before they enter the oven would be delicious.

At any rate, these won’t last long in your kitchen and even the biggest skeptics will be won over.  The great thing about these chips is that they are rather sturdy, so don’t be afraid to served them with your favorite dip!

This post is a part of “Tempt My Tummy Tuesday” over at Blessed by Grace!

Matsoni is what I call a “counterculture” because it doesn’t need to be incubated in order to culture, as most traditional yogurts do. Although, to be fair to history and regionality, it seems to me that most of the yogurts that need to be “incubated” to remain at a constant temp of about 90-100 degrees–these yogurts actually hail from the parts of the world that have temperatures that are fairly constantly in that range!  All that’s to say that I don’t think Nature intended for much fancy equipment in order to culture milk.

The Matsoni is perfectly happy at around 70 degrees to culture within 12-24 hours. I made my first batch this week and here is what I love about it:

1) No need to incubate (already explained above!) so no expensive equipment or hassle required. Just add the starter, and do nothing until about 12 hours later when it’s ready!

2) You can transform regular pastuerized store-bought milk into an enzyme-rich treat!I actually cultured a quart of half & half and got a really creamy, mild, delicious and thick yogurt! If you strain this just a little bit, you end up with delicious, probiotic-rich cream cheese (raw cheesecake anyone? Or perhaps a smoked salmon-cream cheese roll up?)

3) It saves money! Organic yogurt can cost up to $5.00 per quart.  You can buy an entire half-gallon of organic milk for about the much, which means you can make your own for half the price.  By adding your culture week after week you can eventually pay for the price of the culture with the savings.

4) Did I mention it was easy? College students could keep this going in their dorm (bootleg a quart or two of whole milk from the cafeteria and culture it in your dorm room!!!), busy moms can quickly and easily make a batch in about 2 minutes and forget about it until the next day. No heating milk, cooling it to just the right temperature, then configuring some way to keep it warm, etc.  No adding skim milk powder or gelatin to thicken it, because it thickens right up (especially when you add cream or half & half). 

5) The taste and texture are amazing, even my husband liked it!  This is reason enough to stick with Matsoni.  I’ve tried kefir, fil mjolk, and regular yogurt and the taste is just too “off” for my husband. I recently make the Indian cucumber yogurt dip called raitaand my husband raved about it.  My kids love the Matsoni mixed with fruit sauce (just boiled down blueberries or peaches; no sugar added) for a fun and easy “fruit on the bottom” breakfast.  The texture (especially when using half and half) is thick and pudding-like and once the culture is set (about 12-18 hours for me) there was absolutely no “runniness” to it.

If you missed my recent contest to win your own yogurt culture, there’s good news.  Thursday, September 17th I’ll be announcing the winner for the contest along with a special coupon code for discounts at Cultures for Health. This offer is limited, so check in when I announce the winner so you can get the deal!

This is what Works for Me when it comes to Organic & Thrifty Real Food!