Apple "Nachos"

Originally Posted at Tess and Tigerlily

This hardly counts as a recipe; it's more of a tasty basic idea that you can adjust to make into your own delicious creation. I made this on the fly the other day during our weekly homeschool preschool days, and it was so good, we've been eating it regularly ever since!

This makes a tasty, light lunch, sweet snack, or a healthy dessert!

I've seen this idea floating around Pinterest here and there, so I admit this isn't some amazing, miraculous, unique idea of mine, but here's how I made my version:

You'll need:
-Apples (I used Honeycrisp, one small apple per child, two small or one large per adult)
-Almond Butter (sweeten with maple syrup, if desired)
-Caramel Sauce
-Full Fat Coconut Milk (sweeten with maple syrup or stevia and vanilla extract)
-Dark Chocolate Chips
-Raisins
-Pecans
-Cinnamon

Slice the apples in thin slices and arrange them evenly on a plate. Sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon. Mix the almond butter with maple syrup (if using) and plot a heaping spoonful in the middle. If your caramel sauce is refrigerated and thick (like the Trader Joe's one I use), warm a small bowl of it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, unitl it melts to a more liquid consistency. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the apples. Whip a small bowl of full-fat coconut milk with vanilla and your sweetener of choice (I used a few drops of liquid stevia.) Drizzle the coconut milk over the apples. Top the apples with a small handful of the chocolate chips, peans, and raisins. Enjoy!

This is like a raw pie on a plate! But better. Raw pie on a plate probably wouldn't be very appetizing, come to think of it.

You can make this healthier by omitting the caramel sauce and chocolate chips. It would still be absolutely delicious! This is a great way to get some fruit in your diet, if you get easily bored of raw apples and bananas on a daily basis.

These fall days are flying by. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means this is sure to be a busy week. Wishing you all a tasty, warm, thankful Thanksgiving this coming Thu

Pumpkin Custard Pie {Paleo, Low Carb, Gluten Free, Dairy Free}

Originally Posted at Tess and Tigerlily

Here's another pumpkin recipe! With all the pumpkin pie-eating going on around me, and all the lactose intolerance/low carb-eating going on in my body, I was once again compelled to make my own recipe that satisfied my cravings, used the ingredients I wanted to use, was easy, and tasted delicious.

This one delivers! Especially in the easy category. Most of the other custard recipes I found called for separating ingredients when mixing, and baking the ramekins in a dish surrounded by water. Sure, there are reasons for those extra measures, but this mama wants her pie NOW and she wants it EASY (insert hungry mom roar here.) Ok, so you still need to let it cool, unless you like it warm, but at least the preparation is as simple as blending the ingredients, pouring into ramekins, and baking. Done. Your turn!

Pumpkin Custard Pie
{Paleo, Low Carb, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, can be sugar free.}
Fills 4 medium/small ramekins

This recipe is basically a crust-less pumpkin pie. The ingredients are pretty darn healthy, so I didn't feel too bad about eating it for breakfast a couple times (sheepish grin). It uses pumpkin puree, coconut cream and coconut non-dairy beverage (if you aren't obsessed with coconut cream like I am, you can just sub 1 cup full fat coconut milk for the combo), and is sweetened with maple syrup. If you want a purely sugar free version, you can use stevia instead. My first version was sweetened with only stevia, but I found it lacking in the sweetness category, so I drizzled the finished product with a bit of maple syrup. It was delicious like that, but the second time around, I used maple syrup entirely.

1 cup pumpkin pruee
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup 'milk' (like coconut non-dairy beverage, almond milk, or milk if you do dairy)
2 eggs
2 tbsp maple syrup (or 8 drops liquid stevia, or a combo)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients together (I used a food processor) until smooth. Pour into ramekins about 2/3-3/4 full. Bake 25-30 minutes until center is firm with a slight jiggle. Let cool, and then transfer to fridge for an hour or more. When ready to serve, top with whipped coconut cream and pumpkin pie spiced pumpkin seeds.

I guarantee I'll be making this a lot over the next few months!

Whipped Coconut Cream {Paleo, Low Carb, Vegan, Sugar Free}

Originally Posted at Tess And Tigerlily

Coconut Cream has become my current obsession, especially with my growing sensitivity to dairy (no, why????!!!) I plan on figuring out which forms of dairy I can handle (yogurt and butter seem fine), but in the meantime, I'm avoiding most forms of dairy. 

Coconut cream is pure magic. It's heavenly. Coconut cream is the heavy whipping cream of the non-dairy world. It is perfect for stirring into tea and coffee in place of creamer, great in baked goods, adds rich creaminess to smoothies, and is the lactose-intolerant's best friend for replacing whipped cream.

Where the heck do you find coconut cream?! I get mine at Trader Joe's, where this part-time-working mama works (no, they don't pay me for the millions of times I showcase TJs products on my blog, I do it out of convenience as well as heartfelt enjoyment of their products. Now, if they did pay me for all the extra love I send their way in addition to my hourly wages...wouldn't that be a sweet deal?), but you can also find coconut cream at health food stores and even amazon. 

If you absolutely cannot find coconut cream, (or want a pure, organic version; TJs is NOT organic and contains a couple 'fillers') there's help! You can make it from regular old FULL-FAT coconut milk! Simply buy a can or two and store them in the fridge for a day (or more). When ready to use, remove from fridge, and WITHOUT SHAKING/MIXING them, open the cans and scoop out the thick cream that has risen to the top. The watery part of the coconut milk will be at the bottom. Store the cream portion separately, and use to make coconut whipped cream! You can save the water portion for smoothies.

Whipped Coconut Cream

Being a single mama, I like to make things in smaller portions, so I only make my whipped coconut cream about 1 cup at a time. You can double or even triple this recipe for larger supply. Use it to top fresh baked holiday pies! You can also stir it into tea and coffee.

1 Cup Coconut cream

1/8 tsp Vanilla

2-4 drops stevia (or 1/2 tsp maple syrup, or sweetener of choice)

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. You can start using it immediately, but I find that the texture improves if you put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes or more, and then whisk again. You will have thick, whipped coconut cream that totally hold its shape on a slice of pie!

I dare you not to get hooked on this tasty stuff!

Letter of the Day Sugar Cookies {with Naturally Colored Icing!}

Originally posted at Tess And Tigerlily

 

If you've read my last two posts about starting to do preschool activities at home (read part one, and part two), you know that we are starting small with simple ways to incorporate learning with play.

It was day one of my friend, Robin, and my homeschool preschool experiment with our two daughters. We started off with preschool-age story time at our local library, where the theme was Dragons and Castles and the Letter D. The girls had a great time listening to a couple stories and singing along with the songs. Afterward, we went back to my house and decided to carry on with the Letter D theme and make Letter D and Dinosaur sugar cookies!

I made use of this awesome cookie cutter set, made a simple batch of sugar cookies, and frosted them with naturally colored icing!

Naturally Colored Icing
This is more of an idea than a recipe, since I didn't measure anything (that tends to be my default cooking and baking mode!), but this was so foolproof, and it can be changed to meet your icing needs, whether it be for sugar cookies, cupcakes, or birthday cakes. The best part is, the coloring used is real fruit and I actually flavors the icing! If you want a deep, rich concentration of color, you can use less powdered sugar and more of the fruit powder (or try using only fruit powder to eliminate refined sugar.) If you want a pastel color, only a little fruit powder is needed.

You'll need:
-Heavy Whipping Cream (or Coconut Cream for dairy free)
-Powdered Sugar
-Freeze dried raspberries or strawberries (for red or pink)
-Freeze dried blueberries (for blue or purple)

First, grind about 1/4 cup of each of the freeze dried fruits in a spice or coffee grinder (I used my baby bullet) until it becomes a fine powder. Next combine about 1/4 cup heavy cream with a couple tbsp powdered sugar until it reaches the icing consistency your are looking for. Finally, add some of the freeze dried berry powder, 1/4 tsp at a time, until the frosting reaches the desired color. Repeat for other color. When you're ready to ice your cookies, pour each color of frosting into plastic ziplock bags, make a small snip in the corner, and use them as piping bags!

This icing turned out delicious! Trader Joe's and even Target have many different varieties of freeze dried fruits, so I look forward to trying this again with other fruits and colors.

The girls had a great time frosting their own cookies (we moms helped too, of course), and had even more fun eating them. While we worked on our cookies, we talked about other things that start with Letter D. Mila answered most of the questions, since she's the older of the two girls, but November listened, and remembered some of what she heard. It gave me a glimpse at the benefits of schooling children of multiple age ranges together.

Afterward, we got some energy out at open play at Seattle Gymnastics, and afterward November and I went home for a nice long nap. It sure was a great start to our homeschool experiment! And this simple and tasty project will be so much fun to replicate again in the future and for holidays!