Banana Bread: Against All Grain

http://allfueledup.blogspot.com/2013/08/against-all-grains-banana-bread.html
This is from the Against All Grain cookbook.

In the above link it says in the comments how the bread can appear when undercooked. I think mine was undercooked, and it was quite wet, even though the toothpick came out dry. The middle looked a little under, but I trusted the toothpick. Next time, don't trust the toothpick! Let it go at least 50 minutes. Also, I may have put in a little less coconut flour than called for, and I know that can make a difference. Also I mixed it by hand, and so next time I will use a hand beater.

I think this recipe will turn out better next time. I subbed 1 T brown rice syrup for the 3 T honey and it was plenty sweet. It probably did not need any sweetener.

Creamy Chicken Soup

http://meatified.com/creamy-chicken-soup-aip/
Creamy Chicken Soup

I love this soup. I think it a great way to use up leftover cauliflower, which is what I had after making the Chicken Rice Casserole. I did add about 1/3 cup of coconut milk to make it even creamier. The bone broth I had was made mostly from chicken parts so it tasted very chickeny and yummy!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

 Chicken and Rice Casserole, from Meals Made Simple, p 140.

This was so fantastic. It did take me about an hour to do prep, but I can be much more efficient I'm sure. It is worth making frequently. Both kids liked it, and David and I loved it.

Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made the Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Primal Cravings.

I think I ruined the recipe, since I replaced the butter with palm shortening, and the sugar with sucanat. It did not mix up like it was supposed to, and I had to add twice the water it called for. They did cook up and look normal, but they had a strange flavor and I'm not sure if its the sucanat or the flours in the recipe. I think with my diary-free restrictions this is not the best recipe for me, since it is designed around using butter, which has a particular moisture content that does not compare to the replacements.

Hummus II

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/hummus-recipe.html

I only used 1/4 cup tahini in this. I think there was too much garlic and lemon in this recipe. I prefer less kick and more smoothness. I have an old hummus recipe on here from 2010. I will try that next since I liked it before and it has less garlic and lemon. Maybe I will like it again!

Cowboy Hashbrown Skillet

Cowboy Hashbrown Skillet from the Primal Cravings cookbook p 62.

I tried to make this in my enameled le creuset skillet but it always tends to burn things, so this was a little burnt too. However, I still enjoyed it a lot. David said he would rather it have potato than plantains. He likes plantains a lot, but he thought they weren't detectable in the dish because of the strong flavor of the chorizo. So I'll make this again with potatoes, but I'll need to squeeze them out since they are quite wet compared to plantains.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin Cookies St. Patricks Day style

http://againstallgrain.com/2013/03/15/cinnamon-oatmeal-raisin-cookies-st-patricks-day-style
Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin Cookies St. Patricks Day style

These turned out great. I used sweetened sunbutter I got from Trader Joes, so I left out the honey to compensate. Also only used 5 dates since they were hefty medjool ones. They were great! I made them in the morning and by dinner they were a very dark green. Success!

Meatloaf Meatballs

Meatloaf Meatballs from p 148 of Meals Made Simple.

These are great. They were very loose but still managed to hold together enough to flip and cook. Mine needed 25 minutes, but they were a little large I think. I also used pork sausage since I didn't have ground pork,and that made them a little bit more fatty than they should have been. As they baked a lot of oil came out, but they were still great. I made them with coconut flour.

The sauce was good. I used brown rice syrup instead of honey. The sweetness level was perfect, and I think the recipe was supposed to be like homemade ketchup (with a bit of mustard). It was great! I did use tomato puree in it, which I had never bought before. I've read that strained or crushed tomatoes would be equivalent to puree.

We ate these with rice and corn, but the rice is really not necessary. These really are like meatloaf and stand on their own.

German Apple Pancakes Grain free

http://www.riddlelove.com/2014/11/grain-free-german-apple-pancakes-recipe.html

German Apple Pancakes Grain free

These did not turn out well. It was mostly soggy and didn't puff or anything. The apples on top were good, but everything else was soggy. Nobody liked it except Clyde (my 1 year old). I used "So Delicious Coconut Beverage" as the milk for it.

update: these are much better as cold leftovers. The soggyness is much less pronounced. I'm interested in finding a coconut flour muffin recipe that is good for snacks, (i.e. unsweetened or with 1 T only)

Gluten free dairy free pie crust

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/143974/gluten-free-pie-crust-with-libbys-famous-pumpkin-pie-filling/?recipeFoodType=100-pure-pumpkin~pies-tarts

This crust rolled out well. I mixed it up in my food processor, and needed and extra 2-4 T of water. I used lard instead of butter, so that might have altered the water content too since its dryer than butter I think.

This made two crusts. They were great for gluten free, but not as good as real wheat crust of course. They were a little thin, but they still worked well. These would be great for a double crusted pie too. I used this for a pumpkin pie and it worked great. I made the pie dairy free by subbing coconut milk for evaporated milk.

Vegan Cheesecake 1

http://minimalistbaker.com/7-ingredient-vegan-cheesecakes/
Vegan Cheesecake

I had just over a cup of cashews, so did not have quite enough. Also I did not have dates, so I added 3 T of brown rice syrup to the walnuts and that worked fine. Also, I used brown rice syrup instead of agave. And I used coconut cream instead of coconut milk. These were hard to pop out, and get soft very quickly.

This was good, but I think the coconut made it a little richer and softer than I prefer. The next time I make this it will be a coconut milk/cream free version.

Pepperoni Pizza Pasta

http://www.accesshollywood.com/grain-free-recipes-for-the-whole-family_article_98913
Pepperoni Pizza Pasta

This was really good. It is in the Meals Made Simple cookbook p. 166. The yellow squash has a lot of seeds in it, so I wasn't able to julienne as much as the spiral slicer would have done. I may buy one of those someday.

Pot Roast in the Crock Pot

My Instant Pot *low* function cooks a little too low, unfortunately. I'm glad I kept my old 6 quart crockpot, as it can hold more and does better at sensitive slow cooker stuff.

I had two 2-lb chuck roasts and wanted to do them both at once. I used this recipe as a guide (http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-best-chuck-roast-356560) but did not add the mushroom soup since it has wheat & dairy. I put in a few yukon gold potatoes and some carrots, and onion and celery too. I may have put in a small amount of cabbage, I forget. I put all that on the bottom and then put the meat on top. I did sear the meat, and then the two roasts were slightly overlapped since they were bigger. I think I added coconut milk to this to replace the mushroom soup, and it turned out fantastic. I couldn't taste any coconut, but it was the best pot roast I've had in a long time. I served it to the Parkers and there wasn't anything left at the end of the meal.

Next time I would like to add mushrooms too.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

http://minimalistbaker.com/one-bowl-gluten-free-banana-bread/

Gluten Free Banana Bread

This is a great recipe. I used coconut milk instead of milk, and did not add the sugars. I used bob's red mill gf flour blend since I had it on hand. Also used trader joes almond meal. And old fashioned oats. This is very good, and is sweet enough without the sugar.
David thought it had too much baking powder that added a bitter taste, and that it was too dense.

Spanakopita Soup

Spanakopita Soup p 89 from Primal Cravings.

I did not like this at all. There was way too much spinach for my tastes, and I don't like lamb served this way as there are no strong flavors to counter the lamb flavor. David liked it a lot though.

Shredded Tenderloin Pork

I had 5.5 lbs of tenderloin pork, 3 roasts worth. I seared them with onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 T cumin, 1 T oregano, and olive oil. Then I pressure cooked for 70 minutes. It was partially frozen initially, so if thawed I would subtract 20 minutes or something. It wasn't very flavorful on its own, but with tostadas and other toppings it worked fine. It shredded easily, but didn't have the same flavor as a pork butt because it was so lean. I prefer the pork butt/shoulder for shredded pork.