Merry Christmas, Hannah! 2013

This December I put a lot of time into making the foods of this Christmas Holiday special for Hannah.  I found a new resource for recipes.  Enjoy Life's Facebook page has a free downloadable recipe book that has taught me a few new tricks of the trade.  The following are all the new and old- but soon to be posted- foods and treats I created for Hannah.

Broiled or Grilled Marinated Salmon

Chicken Macaroni "Pot Pie"

Cranberry Brussels Sprouts

French Toast

Honey Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham

Mint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Prime Rib Roast

Peppermint Bark

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

From the Enjoy Life ® cookbook:

Sunbutter cups

Mountain Mambo ® Crunch 

Chocolate Covered Mini Donuts

Fudgy Chocolate Sunbutter Pie

(no picture yet)

New Favorite Products:

Enjoy Life ® Decadent Bars- S'mores

Coconut Milk

So Delicious Dairy Free Chocolate Frozen Dessert (aka Soy free Dairy Free Ice Cream)
Ooooh,  I just found a downloadable recipe book from So Delicious!  Stay tuned for our favorites from that resource!

Fudgy Chocolate Sunbutter Pie

This one comes from the Enjoy Life® cookbook.  I forgot to take a photo.

1 Classic Graham Cracker Crust (recipe below)
1 bag Enjoy Life® Semi Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
1 T. tapioca starch
1 c. cold water
1 c. smooth sunbutter
1 T. vanilla
1 T. corn syrup
Sunflower seeds, shelled

Prepare Graham Cracker Crust.  Set aside.

Pour chocolate chips into a medium sized bowl, reserving a small amount for pie topping.  In a small saucepan, whisk the tapioca starch into the cold water.  Heat over medium heat, bring to a simmer to turn into a translucent gel.  Pour immediately over chocolate, stirring constantly, until all chocolate melts. Lumpy and bumpy- don't worry!  Immediately whisk in the sunbutter.  It will begin to look smooth, though possibly grainy.  Stir in the vanilla and corn syrup.  Pour into the prepared pie crust.  Garnish with reserved mini chips, crumbs and sunflower seeds.  Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.  Serve cold or room temperature.  Store tightly covered in the refrigerator up to 4 days.

Enjoy Life's Classic Graham Cracker Crust
1 box Enjoy Life® Crunchy Vanilla Honey Graham Cookies
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. oil or melted Spectrum Shortening, or coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350°.
Place entire contents of boxed cookies in a food processor with the sugar.  Process until fine. Add oil and process until mixture becomes a little wet.  Reserve a small amount to sprinkle on top of the sunbutter pie.
Pour the mixture into the middle of the pie pan. Use your fingers to spread and press the mixture to 1/8" thickness covering the whole pie pan with no holes.
Bake for 8-10 min., or until crust is golden brown.

Peppermint Bark

Hannah's Favorite Chocolate Candy!

1 bag Enjoy Life® Semi Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
4 crushed candy canes

Line a large tray with foil.
Empty the bag of chocolate chips into a small glass bowl.  Melt in the microwave on the melt chocolate setting. (Yes, mine has a melt chocolate setting.  Therefore, I don't know how much time to tell you to do it in your microwave.  Try 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds stir, etc?)
Pour melted chocolate onto the wax paper.  Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the top.  Using another piece of foil, cover the chocolate and candy candy canes.  Gently press down on the foil to set the candy canes into the chocolate.  Place the tray in the refrigerator for 30 min.  Chocolate is set when the foil removes easily form the chocolate.  Break the Peppermint Bark into pieces, store in an airtight container.  If the room it very warm, it's best kept in the refrigerator.  This made enough to fill a medium sized plastic holiday candy container.

Sunbutter Cups

This comes from the Enjoy Life® cookbook, except I did not use the Dark Choco Boom bars.  Instead I the regular Choco Boom bars.  I tried my hand at tempering the chocolate, so I did not add add sunbutter to the chocolate as their recipe book said.  As a result I was short on chocolate, I did not get 12 cups.  Next time I will use 2 1/2 Choco Boom bars.

Sunbutter filling:
3 T. smooth sunbutter
1 t. vanilla extract
2 t. corn syrup
1 T. powdered sugar

Combine all the ingredients until smooth.  Roll into marble sized balls, flattened a little.  Set aside.

Line a mini cupcake pan with paper liners.

2 1/2 bar Enjoy Life® Chocolate Choco Boom® bars, regular or dark
To Temper the Chocolate: Chop the chocolate into fine pieces.  Place 2/3 of the chocolate in the top pan of a double broiler.  (I do not have double broiler. I used a medium sized pan full of water with my all-metal fry spider balanced over the top the medium pan. I placed the small saucepan on top of the spider.  It was a balancing act, but it worked!)  Heat over hot, not boiling water, stirring constantly until chocolate reaches 110° - 115° F.  Place the top pan on a towel.  Cool to 95°-100° F.  Add the remaining chocolate to the top pan, stirring until melted.  The chocolate is now ready to be used for molding candies, coating, or dipping.

Drizzle tempered chocolate to cover the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup.  Add the flattened sunbutter ball, top with chocolate to cover. Place in the refrigerator to set.

Chocolate Covered Cake Donuts

Just like the little Hostess kind, only allergy free!  This recipe comes from the Enjoy Life® cookbook.

1 T. Tapioca Starch
1 cup cold water
3/4 c. sorghum flour plus extra for dusting pans
1/4 c. tapioca starch
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. ground cinnamon
3 T. sugar
1 T. honey
2 T. Spectrum Shortening
1/3 c. applesauce
1/4 c. coconut or rice milk
1/2 t. apple cider vinegar
1/8 t. baking soda
1 T. Enjoy Life® mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a small saucepan, whisk 1 T. tapioca starch into 1 cup water until it dissolves.  Heat over medium heat until the gel thickens and becomes translucent.  Bring it just to simmer, them remove from heat.  Pour into a container to cool.  Leftover gel can be refrigerator and used within 1 day.
Grease the mini donut pan with a coating of Spectrum Shortening.  Sprinkle 1/4 tsp. of sorghum flour into each donut space.  Tilt and turn the pan to coat the donut spaces with the flour.  Shake out excess flour.
In a small bowl, combine the 3/4 cup sorghum flour, 1/4 c. tapioca starch, baking powder and salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream honey, sugar, and shortening.  Mix in applesauce.  Mix in 1/2 the combined dry ingredients.  Mix in milk, then the remaining 1/2 of the combined dry ingredients.  Fold in 2 T. of the tapioca gel, 1 T at a time.  Add the apple cider vinegar.  Add the baking soda and the chocolate chips.
Spoon about a tsp of batter into each side of a donut space, careful to only fill about 1/2 full.  You can also fill a mini muffin tin with a small cookie scoop of batter and make regular size donut holes.
Bake for 5 min. for the donuts, 7-8 for the mini muffin donut holes, 15-17 if making full size donuts.
Cool on wire racks.  Ice with a Sugar glaze, dust with powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar, or glaze with Chocolate glaze (Recipe below).

Chocolate Glaze for Donuts

1 bag Enjoy Life® Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/3 c. plus 1 T. water
1 T. Spectrum Shortening or coconut oil
1 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla extract

Place the chocolate chips in a small glass bowl.  In a small saucpan, combine the water, shortening and sugar. Bring to a boil.  Allow to boil 1 min.  Pour over chocolate chips.  Allow to sit 30 seconds, then stir with a wooden spoon until chocolate in melted.  It may be necessary to microwave for 15 seconds to melt all the chocolate. Stir in vanilla extract.  It may also be necessary to add 1 tsp. of hot water at a time if it is too thick for glazing the donuts.
To glaze the mini donuts, I used a thicker plastic straw that belonged to a water bottle.  I place the straw in the hole of the donut, dunked it, let it drip a few seconds, then placed them on a rack set on a cookie sheet to catch the drips. If you are adding sprinkles, sprinkle immediately upon the donuts being placed on the rack. Once the rack was full, I place the tray in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate.  The picture above looks as messy as it is because we moved the donuts to take the photo before the last of the donuts had hardened up.

Enjoy!  Donuts may be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.   Un-iced or sugared donuts may also be stored in the freezer.

Mint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Yum! Makes 2-3 dozen cookies  This is an altered version of the Chocolate Crinkle cookies found in the Enjoy Life® cookbook.  Because I didn't have the mini chocolate chips, I added the mint extract instead.

2 tsp. tapioca starch

1 cup cold water

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups cocoa powder

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 T. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

1 3/4 cup plus 3 T. gluten free flour

1/2-1 cup mini chocolate chips, optional (I did not use them in the photo above)

2 cups powdered sugar

(To make not Mint cookies, eliminate the mint extract, increase the vanilla to 1 T. and add the mini chocolate chips.)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  

Combine tapioca starch and water in small saucepan.  Stir until tapioca starch dissolves.  Heat over high heat until the tapioca gel is thick and translucent. Do not boil.  Pour into a glass bowl and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  Add the oil, vanilla extract, mint extract, and cooled tapioca gel.  Mix until evenly combined, it will look spongy. Add the flour all at once and mix.  Stir in chocolate chips if you are using them.  The dough should be sticky but pliable, not too wet and not hard.

With a small cookie scoop, scoop up a ball of dough, drop into powdered sugar and roll to cover.  Place on the covered cookie sheet.  Bake 12-14 min. until crackled and not wet.  Remove to wire racks to cool.  Store in an airtight container.

Cranberry Brussels Sprouts

This is a pretty red and green side dish that goes well with Christmas dinner.
Sorry, no picture this time.

1 lb. Brussels sprouts, washed and trimmed
2 T. olive oil
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
4 oz. dried cranberries
Sesame seeds

Using a food processor with the slicing attachment, slice the Brussels sprouts.  Alternatively, you can use a mandolin or a knife to thinly slice the sprouts.  Heat a pan over med-high heat.  Add olive oil.  Heat a minute or so.  Add Brussels sprouts, salt, pepper and cranberries.  Cook and stir 2-3 min. until sprouts are heated and bright green.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Serve immediately.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Honey Glazed Spiral Sliced Ham

Traditional Christmas Day Dinner!

1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
8-9 lb. spiral sliced Ham

Allow ham to warm to room temperature, 1 hour prior to cooking.
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Heat honey, sugar and seasonings in a small saucepan until brown sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat and set aside.
Line a shallow roasting pan with foil.  Place ham on foil, cut side down. Pour glaze over the ham.
Cook, uncovered 20 min.  Allow to rest 10 min.  Serve immediately with dijon mustard, Grandma Bray's pineapple sauce, or Grandma Boulden's Apricot Ham sauce.

Grandma Bray's Pineapple Sauce
6 T. sugar
1 c. water
1/3 c. crushed pineapple
1 grated orange rind
3 T. cornstarch
1 c. orange juice

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.  Heat to boiling.  Cook 3 min. until thickened.  Serve with ham.

Grandma Boulden's Apricot Ham Sauce
1 cup apricot jam
2-3 T. mustard

Stir to combine.  Serve with ham.

Prime Rib Roast

A tradition for Christmas Eve Dinner.

1 Prime Rib Roast
Kosher salt
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. sage
3 tsp. thyme
2 T. freshly ground pepper
2 T. olive oil
2 T. Earth Balance Soy Free Natural Buttery Spread

Bring roast to room temperature 1 hour prior to cooking.
Preheat oven to 425° F.
Place roast in a shallow roasting pan.  Sprinkle with kosther salt.
Combine remaining ingredients in a small food processor and pulse until a paste is formed.  Alternatively, finely mince the garlic, rosemary and thyme, mash together with remaining ingredients into a paste.  Spread the paste all over the roast.
Place roast in oven and roast for 15 min.
Reduce temperature to 325° F. Roast 40-50 min. until internal temperature reached 130° F.  Removed from oven and allow roast to rest 15 min. prior to slicing and serving.

Broiled or Grilled Marinated Salmon

I served this at our Family Christmas Party.  Everybody loved it and wanted the recipe, so I put in this cookbook.  Sorry, no picture :(  I will next time, if I remember.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup Coconut Aminos
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 T. lemon juice, freshly squeezed preferable
3 T. Seafood Seasoning
Salmon, fillets or steaks

Combine oils and seasonings in a zippered gallon bag.  Add salmon.  Squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the bag.  Place bag in refrigerator for 3 to 12 hours, turning over occasionally.  Remove salmon from marinade.  Discard the bag and marinade.  Broil or grill salmon accordingly for fillets or steaks until flaky and tender.

Cooking Chart Guideline
Broiled fillets - 8-10 min.
Broiled steaks- 8 min. each side.

Seafood Seasoning

I use this in the Broiled or Grilled Salmon marinade.

6 T. plus 1 tsp. Salt
3 T. plus 2 tsp. celery seed
2 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.  Makes approx. 1 cup.

Mountain Mambo® Crunch- from Enjoy Life®

Like a Chocolate Granola bar!  I got this recipe off a Crunchy Flax® with Chia Cereal box first, then I also saw it in the Enjoy Life® cookbook I downloaded from Facebook.

1 pkg Enjoy Life® Mountain Mambo® Seed & Fruit Mix
1 1/2 cups Enjoy Life® Crunchy Flax® with Chia Cereal
1 1/2 cups Enjoy Life® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Chips or Mega Chunks
1 1/2 tsp. oil

In a large bowl, combine Seed & Fruit Mix, and Cereal.

Melt the chocolate chips over a double burner or in the microwave.  Add oil to the chocolate.  Stir until smooth.  Pour chocolate in the See & Fruit Mix/Cereal mixture and immediately spread thin on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Cool in the freezer or refrigerator.  When completely cool and hard, break into pieces and serve immediately.  Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Chicken Macaroni

This tastes like chicken pot pie in a macaroni casserole.

1 T. potato starch

1/2 cup coconut or rice milk
1/2 cup Pacific Foods Chicken Broth
1 T. dried chopped onion
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper
1/4 tsp. dried sage

1 cup gluten free Macaroni, we use Andean Dream Quinoa Pasta, cooked

1 cup cooked diced chicken
1 cup mixed frozen peas and carrots

In a medium saucepan, slowly stir milk into potato starch with a wisk.  Add chicken broth, dried onion, salt, pepper, and sage.  Bring to boil over med-high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick creamy about 2 min.  Stir in cooked macaroni, chicken and peas and carrots.  Heat through.  Serve immediately.

This makes about 4 servings.

French Toast

In Hannah's food world, french toast would seem to be an impossible allowance, as it is traditionally made with glutenous bread, milk and eggs.  However, I seem to have come up with a winner using dairy free, egg free, thinned pancake batter and Ener-G Yeast Free Brown Rice Loaf.

1/3 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix, or other gluten free pancake mix
1/2 T. oil
1 egg replacement whipped using Ener-G egg replacer
1/2 cup coconut or rice milk, or orange juice or apple juice for flavored toast
1/8 tsp. vanilla flavor (optional)
1/8 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
3-4 slices gluten free bread, we used Ener-G Yeast Free Brown Rice Loaf
oil or palm oil for the pan/griddle.

Heat a non-stick griddle to 300 degrees.
Mix pancake mix, oil, whipped Egg Replacer and coconut milk until you have a smooth runny batter.  Pour the batter into a shallow pie plate.  Push 1 slice of the bread down into the batter, covering it with the batter.  Allow the bread to soak in the batter for 30-45 seconds until it is completely saturated.
Drizzle a bit of oil, or grease a spot with palm oil on the heated griddle.  Place a battered bread on top of oil.  Cook 1-2 min. until golden brown underneath.  Flip the french toast and cook another 1-2 min. If needed, keep warm in an oven heated to 325 degrees. Serve hot with Earth Balance Soy Free Natural Buttery Spread and powdered sugar.

TIP: This batter also makes good Crepes!

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

This is a very easy way to make flavorful potatoes and a nice change from baked or mashed potatoes.

Potatoes of any kind, russet, white or red, as many as you need to feed who are going to feed
Olive oil
Dried rosemary
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Wash and scrub the potatoes clean.

If you are using russet potatoes, dice them.  Here is a pictorial guide- how to dice potatoes:

 On a cutting board, with a large sharp knife, slice the potato in half lengthwise.

Keeping the two halves together, roll the potato 1/4 of turn so the halves are one on top of the other.  Cut down through each half, cutting them each in half, creating a 4 part potato.

Keeping the four parts together, rotate the potato so your knife is at one end.  Cut about 1/2 in. from the end down through all four parts.  This will cut of 4 diced pieces of potato.

Continue moving your knife in 1/2 inch from the cut end of the potato, cutting down through all 4 parts.

This will continue to cut of 4 diced potatoes with each cut of the knife.

Until you are at the end of the potato, when you will end up with 8 diced pieces of potato if you have spaced your piece to allow a decently sized end section.

One regular sized russet makes about 1 serving of diced potatoes.

If you are using smaller red or white potatoes, depending on their size, you can leave them whole, cut them each in half or in 4th's if the the potatoes are on the larger size.

Place potatoes in a large enough bowl to allow room to toss the potatoes without having them fly out of the bowl.

Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes, and toss or stir the potatoes.  Sprinkle the oiled potatoes with rosemary, salt and pepper.  Toss again to distribute the seasonings among all the potatoes.

Spread the potatoes out onto a cookie sheet, tray or large casserole dish large enough to hold all the potatoes in a single layer. 

Place the tray in the preheated oven.  Roast the potatoes for 10-15 min.  Pull the tray out and stir up and flip the potatoes over.  Return to oven and continue to roast for another 10 min. or until potatoes are soft and somewhat golden brown.

Remove potatoes from the tray and place in a serving dish and serve immediately.   Yum!  

Chinese BBQ Pork

This is a Soy Sauce Free version of Chinese BBQ Pork!

1 or 2 Boneless Pork Tenderloin 2-3 lbs (Picture is only 1 tenderloin)

For Marinade:
1/4 cup Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos
2 T. honey
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. five spice powder
red food coloring (optional) (No food coloring in the pictured version)

For the Sauce: Marinade plus 1/2 T. cornstarch
Sesame Seeds

Trim all fat from meat. Place tenderloin(s) in a gallon zippered bag. Combine remaining ingredients with a whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Pour over tenderloin(s) in the bag.  Seal out as much air as possible.  Place in the refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.

To cook:  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Reserving the marinade, place tenderloin(s) on a race in a baking pan.  Put in the oven and bake 45 min. or until internal temperature measures 165 degrees. Remove from oven, wrap in foil and let rest 10-15 min.

To make sauce:  Add cornstarch to a small saucepan.  Whisk in reserved marinade.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 1 min. more or until thickened.

Use an electric knife to thinly slice the tenderloin.  Serve with thickened sauce and sesame seeds.