Yesterday, when I compiled my Rosh Hashanah Menu, I promised y'all that I would give out the recipe for my Stuffed Peppers today, and here they are.  I'm glad I made that promise, since it "forced" me to make these gluten free, grain free stuffed peppers for dinner last night, and my husband and I love them.  They're quite colorful and festive, as you can see in the photo above, and mighty tasty, not to mention high protein.

The idea for stuffing peppers with my version of Mark Sisson's Green Chili Burgers is not my own.  The notion was brought to us by Melisa from driventhinking.blogspot.com in her comment:

Since my husband thinks he has to have some sort of "starch" with dinner, I would probably serve a few slices of the Simple Bread or homemade sweet potato fries..YUM! And of course, avocado. Or...I'd skip making patties and stuff all the ingredients into a red bell pepper and bake. Thanks for the awesome recipe, Elana!

Thanks Melisa!

I'll be serving this dish along with Cauli Rice tomorrow.  That's another recipe I'll be posting soon.  Most likely (a scheduled post as I'll be in synagogue) this Friday.

With all the Holiday craziness I forgot to announce the winner of last weeks giveaway for Mark Sisson's book, The Primal Blueprint. The winner is Mars from oddsthatneverend.blogspot.com!

This is what Mars said she would serve alongside my primal Green Chili Turkey Burgers:

The perfect side would be sauteed okra. Slice the okra and toss to coat in a bowl with: almond flour, chili powder, paprika, cumin and black pepper. Sautee in a pan of heated grapeseed oil until brown. Serve. Beware, they go fast!!!!!!! Yum!

Don't forget to enter yesterdays giveaway to win the book Feeding Baby Green by Dr. Alan Greene.

Happy New Year everyone!

These Green Chili Turkey Burgers are based on a fabulous recipe from Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint Cookbook. His recipe is actually called Fried Eggs Over Green Chili Burgers, and is yet another high-protein entree from the king of primal that my entire family enjoyed.

Green Chili Turkey BurgersNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
2 (4 oz.) cans diced green chiles
1 pound ground turkey
1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
½ cup onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. In a medium sized bowl mix diced chiles with turkey, cilantro, onion, cumin, chili powder and salt
2. Form into burgers and grill
3. Serve

As you can tell from the directions above, and as one Amazon user commented about recipes in The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, this recipe is definitely one of those "quick and dirty dump and stir affairs."

My burgers have more "junk" in them than Mark's do, as I prefer a pattie that is very heavy on the vegetables.

The winner of last weeks giveaway for Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint Cookbook is Emily! Emily's favorite paleo recipe from Elana's Pantry is my Mexican Chicken and "Rice." Thanks Emily! It's one of my favorites too.

We're continuing giveaway madness today with a copy of Mark Sisson's other book, The Primal Blueprint. To enter this giveaway leave a comment below and let us know what you would serve alongside these primal Green Chili Turkey Burgers.

Don't forget to enter the other great giveaway from last week, a bamboo chopping board to make your Chopping Board Pesto! hurry, that giveaway ends this Wednesday, September 1st.

Here's a yummy way to eat your leftover turkey.  Take a couple slices of gluten free Nutty Bread, lettuce, mustard and voilà, you have a delicious post-Thanksgiving meal in a sandwich.  Personally, I would throw some leftover Cranberry Sauce on the side to add a little hit of color and flavor.

By the way, the turkey in the photo above is not turkey from Thanksgiving, it is a leftover photo using organic Applegate Farms turkey.

If you're tiring of turkey sandwiches another great leftover idea is my Turkey Chili which was recommended in a great little write up over at Slashfood.

In other news, I got some Thanksgiving buzz from The Denver Post. They published an article entitled "50 last-minute ideas guaranteed to shake up Thanksgiving". It features my gluten free Pear Crisp from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, along with the recipe itself. So head on over to the Denver Post online for my Pear Crisp recipe for free!

In Friday Freebie news, Kimberley has won last weeks freebie, a Digestive Enzyme from Kroeger Herb. Hope this will help with any potential holiday overload and just day-to-day digestive maintenance.

This week we'll be changing the Friday Freebie up a little bit with a Twitter giveaway where you can win a copy of my gluten free cookbook. In order to be entered into the drawing just tweet the following (once):

This giveaway for The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook will last until the end of November (that means tweet prior to midnight, Monday November 30th to be entered).

UPDATE: this giveaway has ended, the winner was FreshGinger

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving; happy tweeting!

Here is one of my favorite sandwiches --the Turkey Club.  It's a sandwich on Nutty Bread with avocado, mustard and of course, turkey.  It's hot here, so I'm very happy to make sandwiches for dinner and not have to spark up the oven, stove or grill.

These gluten-free sandwiches are full of protein and tasty to boot.  For me, the avocado makes a great whole food substitute for mayo (I'm not in the mood to make homemade mayo today either, though when am I?).  Here's a meal in a sandwich.  Goes great with any number of fresh green salads.

Note: I've received several questions about how to store the Nutty Bread that is found in this recipe. After baking, I let my bread sit on the counter overnight to cool, then wrap it in a paper towel, put it into a zip lock plastic bag and refrigerate. Stored this way it keeps for at least a week.

In my last post I had asked what types of recipes people were interested in seeing here more often. Thank you for all your suggestions and requests!

Now I've got a good list with which to head to the food lab (that would be my kitchen). In the meantime, I've compiled a list of links to several of my already published recipes that I think might be helpful until I can start posting new ones!

Coconut flour recipes for zebe912, Karen and Carlie.
Gluten free snacks for lunchboxes and more for Helen and Tracee.
Breakfast recipes for Annette and Ann.
Almond flour recipes for Hänni.
Raw recipes for Baden and Alchemille.

Thanks again so much, I love all of your ideas!

With a few edits to the classic Cobb, this tasty traditional salad becomes nutritious high protein fare packed with healthy veggies.  This Cobb Salad is a great make ahead dish.  Prepare individual ingredients earlier in the day or the night before and then assemble the salad just before serving.

Traditionally, blue cheese is one of the main ingredients in Cobb Salad, however, I've eliminated this ingredient to create a delicious dairy-free dinner.  Of course, Cobb Salad is traditionally gluten-free, so that was one less hurdle to overcome in putting together a new twist on this delightful classic dish.

Stay tuned for my gluten-free, dairy-free homemade ranch dressing recipe --soon to come.

Cobb Salad is perfect for spring; thankfully, we've had a nice dose of beautiful warm weather lately to help usher in the Spring season.  My garden is in full swing and the dandelions are popping up all over the neighborhood.

Last year, I launched a quirky little website about the war on dandelions called My Dandelion is a Flower.

So I was more than delighted when Pesticide Action Network, a non-profit group I have been involved with for over a decade, approached me about collaborating.  Pesticide Action Network is an international organization whose mission is to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives, something I am passionate about!

It was an honor to be featured in PAN's quarterly magazine and to work with this group of highly educated people devoted to a cause in which I so strongly believe.

If you look on the upper right hand side of my site you will find a photo --and link-- to my forthcoming book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook.  You can pre-order order it by clicking on the book cover image in the sidebar to the right, which takes you over to amazon.com.

I have been working on the book for the past 8 months, well, actually the past 10 years, that's when I really began cooking and writing down my recipes after making them, at the urging of a friend who seemed to like my food.

I signed with 10 Speed Press last summer and pumped this thing out, working literally night and day.  My children are so happy to see it done.  There have been quite a few nights when I bounced up from snuggling one of my boys and went back to work for several hours.  Now, we can go back to unlimited, endless snuggles!

The book is a labor of love and I had a fantastic time writing it.  I'm a bit bewildered now that it's done, though happy to have some of the RAM in my brain back for other purposes.

The most challenging part of writing the book has been getting healthy food on the table each night while creating new recipes and endlessly testing old.  These quick and easy chili fixins' became a go to dish during the writing of the book.

Turkey Bean ChiliNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cup water
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 lb ground turkey (dark or light meat, your choice)
1 cup beans (white, black or pinto -your choice), soaked overnight and cooked

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil
2. Add onion and saute until soft, about 10 minutes
3. Add cherry tomatoes, water, garlic, oregano, chili and salt
4. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes over medium heat until tomatoes are soft and beginning to fall apart
5. Add turkey meat and cook for 10 minutes, until turkey is cooked through, yet still tender, stirring to break up turkey meat
6. Add beans and their cooking juices (not too much or dish will get too watery)
7. Serve

I have a new model in the "action photo" above where I capture the portrait of "child eating chili."  This would be my older son's friend Aiden.

They are on the same baseball team again this year --though they have now graduated to majors.  Aiden is a wicked lefty hitter and amazing pitcher and shortstop.  He is one of the best baseball players of his age that I have ever seen (though I'm not sure how much that's saying given my ultra-limited baseball experience of one season as a coach in AAA little league).

And he loves my Turkey Bean Chili.  A big eater, I so enjoy having him over to our house. The boys often sit together at the table for 40 minutes or more, devouring everything I put in front of them.  Which makes me one satisfied cookbook author.

Update: here's a nice little article on beans that I found in the New York Times.  Per the questions about what type of beans I used here, they are super soft mystery beans that I received in our farm share (CSA) last year from Shannon of Abbodanza.

Leftover turkey?  I opened the fridge this morning and noticed I still had a pile of cooked bird from Thanksgiving.  While I am more than happy to have a surplus of food during these times, I must admit, I was perplexed as to what to do with it.

Turkey chili of course.  Here's a recipe that I threw together, literally, in the crockpot.  Feel free to adapt this chili to your liking and make it up as you go along, like I did.

Turkey ChiliNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
leftover turkey meat, white and/or dark
4-6 roasted poblano chili peppers
2 quarts chicken stock (vegetable stock will work too)
2 medium onions, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cilantro, minced

1. In a large crock pot, combine turkey, poblanos, stock, onions and carrots
2. Allow to cook several hours or overnight
3. Add cumin, oregano and salt
4. In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water to make a slurry
5. Stir into crockpot and cook for another 1 hour or until thick
6. Garnish with cilantro
7. Serve

You can use any type of chili peppers that you wish in this recipe, though beware, I would not recommend anything too hot.  In terms of the arrowroot, I use it to thicken the soup, though you could definitely go without it or experiment with another thickener of your choosing.

Enjoy your leftovers; if you are looking for something else to do with your turkey remnants, check out Karina's recipe for gluten-free turkey enchiladas.  Given that she lives in the southwest, I bet hers are the real deal.

I finished using up all of my turkey today (Monday); how long do you retain your cooked turkey meat in the fridge after Thanksgiving?  How long do you think it will safely keep?  Today was definitely the last day for me and that was stretching it by probably a day.

This week, I have been testing the Thanksgiving menu that I shared with those of you signed up for my newsletter. We had almost a full Thanksgiving dinner last Wednesday and leftovers Thursday and Friday. Needless to say, my husband was not too thrilled with eating turkey 3 nights in a row just a week before Thanksgiving.

Below is the turkey recipe I used for our pre-Thanksgiving feast. I will make it again this Thursday for the real turkey day. This recipe includes the basic steps for how to make a turkey and also provides a simple gluten-free stuffing. No fuss, so you can focus on side dishes, my favorite part of the meal.

Balsamic Roasted Turkey with Apple StuffingNote: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
1 turkey (10-15 pounds)
½ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon celtic sea salt
10 apples, cored and sliced in half
4 sprigs rosemary

To thaw out a frozen turkey place in refrigerator --this will take about one day for every 5 pounds, a 15 pound bird needs 3 days. Alternatively, thaw the bird in a cold water bath, this requires 30 minutes per pound --7 ½ hours for a 15 pound bird. Below are cooking instructions for the thawed turkey.

1. Remove the gizzards (save in refrigerator for gravy)
2. Rinse bird well and pat dry with paper towels; then truss (tie legs together with string)
3. Place turkey breast side up in a roasting pan, then slip rosemary underneath put rosemary inside bird
4. Drizzle bird with grapeseed oil and balsamic vinegar, then sprinkle with salt
5. Wedge apples around roasting pan to prop turkey up evenly --place 2 apple halves in cavity of bird
6. Place roasting pan with turkey, apples, etc. in oven on lowest rack
7. Roast at 325°, 15 minutes per pound; a 15 pound turkey requires 3 hours and 45 minutes
8. If skin begins to brown too soon, cover with foil
9. To check temperature stick a meat thermometer deep into thigh; at 175° it is safely done
10. Remove turkey from oven and allow to sit for 20 to 30 minutes before carving
11. Serve

Serves 12

Take note, because of the balsamic vinegar in this recipe, the turkey skin will be much darker than a bird cooked in the traditional method.