Coconut Chicken Soup

This recipe was inspired by Jaden's Lemongrass Chicken and Coconut Soup from her fabulous book, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.  I received it in the mail on Friday and played with it all weekend long.  It is a captivating book, full of gorgeous pictures (which she styled and shot herself) and easy recipes.  I'm in love.  Last night, I made this Coconut Chicken Soup, Jaden's Grilled Fish with Kabayaki Sauce (also from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook) and some stir fried broccoli.

The food was so good that there was not enough to go around.  Never have I seen my boys gobble up fish so quickly.  This is a very family friendly cookbook and frankly, I cannot say enough good things about it.  Stay tuned and I will share my version of Jaden's Kabayaki Sauce in an upcoming post.

Meanwhile, enjoy this hearty soup.  Tis the perfect season for it.

I love Asian food, it is so tasty, accessible and easy to make.  I plan on having many fun evenings with The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, in fact, I think it will edge out the time I spend with my gluten free cookbook, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, for this week.

Carrot Banana Muffins

When I saw this recipe for a purely fruit sweetened carrot cake from Heidi over at 101cookbooks.com I just knew I would want to make it into some sort of gluten free version.  So I did.

Last weekend our friends Chris and Larry came over to sit out on our porch and read the Sunday New York Times with us while soaking in some good Colorado sunshine and we enjoyed these descendants of Heidi's carrot, banana, date yumminess.  Here it is for all of you.

Gluten Free Carrot Banana Muffinsprint friendly recipe
2 cups blanched almond flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup dates, pitted
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¼ cup coconut oil
1 ½ cups carrots, shredded
¾ cup walnuts, finely chopped

1. In a small bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
2. In a food processor, combine dates, bananas, eggs, vinegar and oil
3. Transfer mixture to a large bowl
4. Blend dry mixture into wet until thoroughly combined
5. Fold in carrots and walnuts
6. Spoon mixture into paper lined muffin tins
7. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes

Makes 18 muffins

Yesterday, I was happy to find that The Philadelphia Inquirer included my own little gluten free cookbook,  The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook in an article called "Gluten-free but still tasty."  Way cool.

In Friday Freebie news, this week I am giving away a copy of a fabulous book written by the founder of Tropical Traditions, Brian Shilhavy.  It is called Virgin Coconut Oil and was provided by the wonderful folks over at Tropical Traditions for this giveaway.  Thanks Brian! Go ahead and leave a comment for your chance to win.

The winner of last week's Friday Freebie, a Luminarc Baby Loaf Pan from the amazing Courtney at Benefit Your Life, is Lydia.

Finally, don't forget to submit your grain free cake post to the "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten-Free" Blog Carnival I'm hosting this month. For more details view my grain free cupcakes post.

Pumpkin Ginger Soup

Soup mania continues.  And this dairy free creamy pumpkin coconut ginger soup hits the spot.  I decided I had to make something pumpkin today after making pumpkin pies from my gluten free cookbook (The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook) and finding myself with a bunch of leftover roasted pumpkin.  Of course soup was the easiest thing to make after making one too many pumpkin pies for family and friends.

We're having nice weather here, in the 60's and sunny, however with a chill in the air, I can't get enough soup.  And this one is a rich, filling and nourishing treat.

Everything has calmed down a bit since Halloween and the boys and I are settling into a good routine, other than those late night World Series games --come on Yankees, get the job done already!

In any event, I'll be serving this warming soup to the boys for dinner tonight with salad greens from the garden (which currently exists in our cold frame).  They'll finish their chores and then we'll eat dinner while we listen to the game playing on the radio.

You may want to add more stevia to your soup than the recipe calls for to make it just a bit sweeter.  I sometimes add a couple of drops of stevia to the individual bowls of soup.  If you use a different type of stevia than the recipe calls for you may need to adjust your amounts, since different brands and types of stevia have different levels of sweetness.

The lovely Karina of Karina's Kitchen also has a recipe for a yummy looking gluten free pumpkin coconut soup.  I think that's where I first got the idea to combine pumpkin with coconut in a soup, though I know I also saw something similar on one of my gluten free yahoo groups as well.

Chicken “Noodle” Soup

It's a gray day here in Boulder and I decided some soup would be in order.  Chicken Noodle Soup to be exact.  So what's a gluten free grain free girl to do for noodles?  Zucchini.  Yes, DIY zucchini noodles.

This recipe is super easy if you have chicken stock on hand.  I keep several jars in the freezer and try to have one in the fridge ready to go as well.  Just dice up some carrots, celery and other veggies of your choice and throw in those yummy zucchini noodles and you've got some good old fashioned, yet healthy modern chicken soup.

I've been sipping this soup all day long to stay warm and am looking forward to serving it to the boys when they return home from school this afternoon.

Bon Appétit is having a "virtual bake-off" in which they're collecting holiday dessert recipes from food bloggers.  I've entered my Tart and Tangy Cranberry Bars into the officially titled Bon Appétit Magazine Blog Envy Bake-Off.

Voting began yesterday, November 1st, and ends December 13th. If you like my Cranberry Bars, head on over and give them a vote by clicking on the picture of them on the Bon Appetite website.  The Cranberry Bars are in a category called COOKIES, BARS and BROWNIES.

I spent a lot of time this past weekend making recipes from my gluten free cookbook and had great fun with it.  We turned the holiday cookie recipe into Halloween themed treats using our spooky cookie cutters instead of the Christmas ones.  It's odd to me that a year after I wrote it, my children and I are still enjoying the recipes from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.

Gluten Free Candy Lists for Halloween

My son and some of the other boys from the neighborhood in their "Go Green" cheerleading uniforms.

I'm posting links to some gluten free candy lists for parents who might be digging through piles of Halloween candy right about now.

My children are still out trick-or-treating and I'm sure they will eat quite a lot of candy tonight, though I have a whole table full of organic turkey, lettuce, strawberries and raspberries sitting here for them.  Thankfully, every time they've come home for a pit stop they (and all of their friends) have filled up on the real food I put out for them.

Later tonight I will buy as much of their candy from them as they wish to sell --I pay them 10 cents for every piece they give up, and then I give that candy to some poor soul.  My children will eat their fair share as well and then they'll tire of it and give the rest away.

I especially like to let my boys partake in the rituals of Halloween since both of them are gluten free and are required to sit out (or eat something separate) when it comes to cake at birthday parties, blue cupcakes at the end of baseball season, etc.

The other day my older son was chatting with me about his school Halloween party that was to take place later in the week.  I asked him if I could make some treats for the party and he nonchalantly responded, "no, Mom, there'll be a bunch of fruit plates, I'll be fine."  Wow, was all I could think, the boy still not only likes fruit, he thinks of it as a treat --hooray!

Anyway, tonight, like the rest of America, my children will eat some candy.  And I'll make sure it's gluten free.  Here are some of the gluten free candy lists that lists that I'll be referencing:

As always, these lists are only for guidance as product formulations can change; for definite information about products, contact manufacturers directly.

Happy Halloween, from the cheerleaders!