Coconut Caramel Rice Pudding Recipe

Sometimes I just get a craving for some rice pudding. I love the flavor, the texture, the creaminess of it all, it is comfort food for me. Maybe it reminds me of my Grandma Estes, she made the best food from scratch period.

This recipe is a healthier version of rice pudding but still creamy and delicious. You get healthier fats from the coconut milk and it won't spike your blood sugar like regular sugar does.

Surprisingly you cannot taste the flavor of coconut if you follow my recipe as is, however if you use less sugar or a different sugar, you may taste it.


Coconut Caramel Rice Pudding

3 Cups (packed) of cooked rice ( I used white basmati rice)
2  14 oz (or close) cans of full fat coconut milk
2/3 Cup of Coconut/Palm sugar*
pinch of salt or to taste
1 tsp of vanilla

In a medium size saucepan, add coconut milk, rice, sugar and salt. Cook on medium heat until rice pudding is almost as thick as you would like, take off the heat and let cool for 5 min. then add vanilla and mix well. Continue to let the pudding cool, it will thicken more as it cools.

When cool enough to eat, serve as is or with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Other topping ideas are...

Cherry sauce
Sauteed apples
walnuts
almonds
raisins

* You could use regular brown sugar in place of the coconut sugar, I would only use 1/2 Cup since coconut sugar is not as sweet as regular. For just Coconut Milk Rice Pudding, sub 1/2 Cup of regular white sugar in place of the coconut sugar.

Enjoy!

My next post will be about our adventures at the Sequoia National Park. Gorgeous Country!!

Steph

You know your loved when...

You know your loved when your standing outside the church building after evening services talking with friends and the temperamental, outside lamp light goes out and everything is black. Then your friends whom you were talking to pull out their phones and use the light from the phone to light up their lips so that I can still read them and continue talking till the aforementioned lamp light decided to turn back on.

This made me laugh and touched my heart at the same time and I felt very loved!

Just thought I would share this with you :)

Steph

Baking Bacon

In case you were wondering why I have not posted about my progress on my second 21 Day Sugar Detox, well that is because I have postponed it till August. We have too much going on right now, we are preparing for our camping trips taking place this summer. I am trying new recipes, and figuring out what to bring for meals and snacks. So far I have some ideas...

1. Hobo meals
2. Omelet in a bag
3. Pancake mix, flours premixed in a bag with instructions on outside of bag
4. Oatmeal (gf oats of course) mixed with either some dry, organic milk or some protein powder (will have to test this out, I have some Sun Warrior Brown Rice Protein powder that I want to try), dried fruit and nuts, premixed in a bag with instructions also written on bag.

Quick, easy and cheap (but high quality) is the name of the game for me, if you have any other great ideas on what I can bring, please share!

Now on to Baking bacon!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably know by now I like to make easy but nutritious meals. I'm not a fan of washing a lot of dishes either, so I try to find ways to minimize the use of dishes, utensils and bake wear that I use.

We love bacon, but after making it on the stove for years and hating all the splattery mess that goes with it, not to mention the stuck on bacon bits at the bottom of my cast iron skillet that I like to not have to soak and scrub if possible to maintain my nice seasoning on it. I decided there must be an easier way, so I researched online to see if anyone was baking bacon in the oven, and sure enough there were many blog posts on the subject. After reading several recipes, I got the gist of it and tried my hand at it and now I love it and will not make bacon any other way....well ok except when we are camping, I will use my skillet :)

I like Trader Joe's Apple Smoked, thick cut, nitrate free bacon and that is what I used, be aware that if you use a thinner bacon the time will be shorter so keep an eye on it while it's on the oven!

Baked Bacon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment, it is actually better to have your parchment be larger than the cookie sheet as it will make keeping your cookie sheet clean much easier.

Lay out your bacon side by side each other till you have filled the pan.

The package of Trader Joe's bacon is a rather small pack so I am able to bake it all at one time.

When oven is preheated, put your pan in and bake for 20-25 min. That is it...so easy and much less messy!

If you are using regular sliced bacon, I would bake for about 10 min. or so.

Wait till bacon fat is cool and solidified if you can, before gathering up the parchment corners and dumping in trash.

If you have more bacon than what can fit on one cookie sheet and you want to bake it all in one batch instead of waiting for the first to finish, line another cookie sheet with parchment like the first and lay the rest of your bacon down on it. Put both sheets on the oven, but half way through baking I would take the bottom sheet and switch it with the top one, to ensure more even cooking.

This method is what I have found to work for me, I hope it helps you in your future bacon endeavors!

Steph

Counting my blessings!

There is a song we sing in church called, "Count Your Blessings" that I love, I find myself singing it at home quite frequently as of late. Sometimes I forget how blessed I really am and get caught up in feeling sorry for myself when life doesn't go my way. Here is the last verse of the song "So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is over all; Count your many blessings, angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end"

I am going to be over here in my little part of the world counting my many blessings, naming them one by one, feel free to join in with your beautiful voice too!

Much has happened this past week, we've started grilling on our grill to avoid heating up the house. It's been very hot during the day, but wonderfully cool at night. I plan on enjoying to the fullest, these cool evenings while it lasts!

We decided the first thing we were going to grill would be hamburgers, thanks to Kade our oldest son. He was craving a big juicy cheeseburger since we don't eat out anymore. Now that we have a gluten free household, that meant we needed some gluten free hamburger buns and I'll tell ya, store bought gf hamburger buns are not very palatable! I used the Udi's Copycat Bread recipe by Extraordinary Life in my previous post and made the 2 loaf recipe. I divided up the dough into 12 equal amounts on my greased Crown Muffin pans and put them into the oven to rise for 30 min. according to the recipe instructions. I however only baked them for 30 min. instead of 70 min. You do not need Crown Muffin pans to make hamburger buns, just use parchment and two cookie sheets, divide the dough into 6 piles on each sheet, then flatten and round each pile as best you can. Put into oven and let rise for 30 min. and bake for 30 min. You do need to let them cool or they will go flat and the texture of the bread will be different. However if you decided to use them as rolls, you could definitely eat them while hot.

Gorgeous!

Perfect!

My bun + My Hubby's 1/2 lb. juicy burger = Drool worthy deliciousness!

Look at the great deal I found at iherb...

Excuse the messy room and focus on the 10# Now brand Mega Pack Tapioca  Flour bag (and two of my cuties).

I use Tapioca starch flour in the Udi's Copycate Bread recipe as well as many other gluten free baking recipes, so it was a wonderful find when I saw this 10# bag on iherb for less than $20.00! I have an iherb code that will get you $5.00 off your first order, just enter FAT433 at checkout. If you are already an iherb customer...what are you waiting for, go order some!

We have a couple of camping trips planned this summer, so I've pulled out some of my camping books I have collected over the years.

This is not even all of them...yes, I am a cookbook addict...or should I say book addict :) I have a few coming from the Library to check out as well. I am looking for easy recipes for our trip. Not just easy, but healthy too.

Anybody got a recipe they would like to share?

Any tips on gluten free camping would be wonderful and welcome!

Steph

Best gluten free bread recipe and another 21 Day Sugar Detox!

I want to share with you all the recipe for the best gluten free bread we have had, and I have bought and made many loaves...trust me! But first here is some history on how I came to find this treasure of a recipe. About a year and half ago, I asked my husband if we could have a gluten free household to avoid cross contamination and to help me stay gluten free. Luckily he agreed, because that is the sweet, hunky kinda guy he is and he wanted me to succeed in my attempt to get healthy. Well, in our family, we like sandwiches, they are easy to make and fairly inexpensive...that is if you don't eat gluten free. I found some gluten free sandwich bread cookbooks and made some of the recipes, the results were pretty good, not wonderful though. We also purchased some store bought breads and found we liked Udi's and Rudi's the best, but sometimes both would end up being dry, not to mention expensive. I decided to Google "Udi's bread recipe" and came across this blog, Extraordinary Life: On the road to joyful cooking, she had a recipe called Udi's white bread copycat recipe. I loved how her recipe was so detailed, and the instructions easy to understand. The comments on this recipe was also full of great tips (I urge you to read them if you plan to make this bread). The first time I made this bread, we were in love, sandwiches were tasty and enjoyable again...and guess what, it tasted waaaay better than Udi's (sorry Udi's) not to mention soft and not dry (of course it's not as soft as Webers bread, that stuff is more air than anything anyway).

Fast forward a year or so and I have made quite possibly a hundred loaves of this bread, and have not had any flops! I have also started using a scale to weigh my flours. I have found two benefits to this (that I can think of, could be more) one, it gives consistent bread results, two, it saves you money from using more flour than you need. Don't worry if you don't have a scale, the original recipe contains the measurements in cups.

I have reproduced this recipe on my blog with permission from Lisa @ Extraordinry Life. I have experimented with and created the gram conversions for those that weigh their ingredients like I do, here's the converstion for you.

1 Loaf

120 g Tapioca flour
119 g  Brown Rice flour
48 g Potato Starch (not Potato flour)
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp sugar
3 egg whites
1 pkg or 2 1/2 tsp of dry active yeast (she says rapid rise yeast, but I have always used dry active with no problems)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vinegar
3/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Once preheated, turn oven off.
Lightly grease on 8 x 4 bread pan. (Albertson's sells Good Cook non stick 8 x 4 pans, I have two of them)

*Grease pan with butter or vegetable shortening.
*In a medium sized bowl, weigh out your flours.
*Add into flours, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, stir carefully with a whisk or spoon to combine.
*Add water, oil, sugar, yeast into a small bowl or measuring cup and mix until combined.
*Allow water to sit while yeast starts to get foamy.
*Meanwhile, in a kitchenaid type mixer with whip cream attachment, whip egg whites for approx. 1 minute or until it develops soft peak.
*Add vinegar to egg whites and whip for a few seconds.
*Add yeast mixture to the egg whites in the mixer.
*Turn mixer on lowest setting and spoon flour into the egg whites, then turn mixer on to a medium setting and whip the batter for 3 minutes.
*With a spatula, spoon dough into pan and flatten as best you can with back of spatula.
*Put pan in oven and leave to rise for 30 min.
*When 30 min. is up, turn oven on to 350 (keep pan inside) and bake for 70-72 min.
*Take out of oven and turn out of pan, let cool completely before slicing or bread will fall flat and have a different texture. Letting cool completely is key...hard I know, but be patient :)
*Slice with serrated knife and enjoy!

2 Loaf Recipe:

240 g Tapioca flour

237 g  Brown Rice flour

96 g Potato Starch (not Potato flour)

4 Tbsp oil

4 Tbsp sugar

6 egg whites

2 pkg or 5 tsps of dry active yeast (she says rapid rise yeast, but I have always used dry active with no problems)

4 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vinegar

1 1/2 cups warm water

Same instructions as above!

Fresh out of the oven!

Beautiful loaves. 

Great texture, not to mention yummy!

Update: Here is the bread recipe made as hamburger buns! I used my Crown Muffin pans, but you really do not need to use them. You can spoon the dough into 6 equal piles on a parchment covered cookie sheet, then flatten and round each pile as best you can, then put in oven to rise for 30 min. according to recipe instructions. Bake only for 30 min. instead of 70! Let them cool, before using or the same thing will happen, they will deflate. You will have to plan ahead, perhaps make them earlier in the day if you will be having hamburgers for dinner. They make excellent rolls too! If you want to use them as rolls, you could definitely eat them not long after they are out of the oven, just break apart with your hands and smear with some butter...

The one loaf recipe will make 6 hamburger buns.

I have two boys (ok three if you count my Hubby) so I used the two loaf recipe to get  12 buns.

My Hubby made 1/2 lb. burgers lol, but boy were they good!

Costco has at this time a great deal on dry active yeast, it looks like a large block of yeast that you will have to chisel pieces off (had an argument with hunny as I did not want to have to break off chunks of yeast lol, but he won out because it is so much cheaper than at the regular store), but when you open it, the yeast is completely granulated and ready to use...so glad I gave in to my hunny!

Now on to the next bit of news...

I am going to do another 21 Day Sugar Detox on Monday, May 28th - June 18th.

After successfully completing the last one, I can feel myself falling back into my old habits, cravings are coming back and the control I thought I had is slipping away. I've made some huge improvements in my health, my thyroid medication has been lowered significantly and I don't want to go back, I need to move forward...so BRING IT ON! I can do this again, you betcha!

Anyone want to join me? You've got a week to gear up emotionally and physically...you can do it!!

You can choose:
1. Just get the sugar out in all it's forms, click here for a list of 50 different names for sugar. Read labels carefully, you'll be surprised, it's in many things!
2. Get all forms of sugar out and not eat anything sweet, including fruit and stevia, splenda or other non-caloric sweeteners. Studies show that for certain people, just eating something that tastes sweet even though there is no sugar, their bodies will release insulin causing fat storage.
3. You can follow the 21 Day Sugar Detox program by Balanced Bites. This program costs $21 is full of information and recipes, check it out.

So who is with me? We can encourage and support each other!

Steph

Making Lacto fermented Vegetables

I have been making my own lacto fermented vegetables for several months now, it's so easy! I will admit that I have wanted to make them for a very long time, but was too intimidated to try it thinking I was going to poison my whole family as well as my self. Along comes Ali and Tom from Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen with a blog post on how to easily make lacto fermented veggies, they even have a video for those who learn visually (me). After reading how easy it was, I decided to get brave and just do it. I enlisted my husband to watch the video with me and listen to all the instructions in case Tom covered information that was not explained in the blog post (it's all explained in the blog).  Next I purchased some wide mouth canning jars along with some plastic lids that go with them. Then I needed to determine what vegetables I was going to lacto ferment first. I chose carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, cauliflower and red onions. I made six jars full of different combinations of vegetables and set them in a 9 x13 cake pan (to catch any fluid that comes out) and into my pantry. I left them for seven days to get "ripe" since it was still chilly during that time of year (if the weather is hot, it may take less time). After seven days, Eric and I pulled out our jars and tentatively tasted some of the veggies and they tasted delicious, even Eric was impressed! His favorite vegetable combination is red onion, cucumber and bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) and has since started adding some red pepper flakes when he makes some for himself.

I love Bubbies brand sauerkraut from the health food store, but it is a bit pricey if you eat a lot of it and I do. So I decided to try my hand at making my own with this recipe from Healthy Green Kitchen. I liked how she adds an apple for a little sweetness and her beautiful picture just looked so appetizing. I ended up using a green  apple in mine and I have to say that although it came out very good, I cannot detect any sweetness, most likely due to the green apple and not a red one as she uses.

Next, I tried my hand at some coconut mayonnaise using a recipe from The Coconut Mama. Instead of using whey, I used liquid from my lacto fermented vegetables and it came out so good, even Eric loved it. The kids could not tell it was made from healthy ingredients and I did not tell them :)

Eric and I have been eating our lacto fermented vegetables with almost every meal, they are so good and just teaming with enzymes and beneficial bacteria. Here are some of the ways I like to enjoy them.

baked potato with some ghee and lacto fermented veggies, I'm drooling!

brown rice pasta with homemade sauerkraut, so good believe it or not. I love it mixed in with brown rice too!

It's safe to say, I eat them with anything, I've even topped a homemade vegetarian pizza (after it was cooked) with my precious vegetables. I plan to try making some lacto fermented ketchup next!

I can't say for sure that my health has benefited from eating this way, but my doctor just recently lowered my thyroid medication by 30mgs, so I am going to keep doing what I'm doing.

What do you think? Are you interested in trying your hand at making some? I'd love to hear about it!

Steph

Update: I wanted to add some links that will offer more information on lacto fermenting

Nourishing Days has a series of posts on Fermented Food for Beginners (this link will take you the last post on the series, but that post will have links to the ones before).

According to Food Renegade, there is 54 billion live bacteria in less than a half a teaspoon of lacto fermented sauerkraut...wow! You can read about it here.

Food Renegade's Raisin Chutney Recipe. I plan to try this one, it looks really good!

Cultures For Health has a compilation of lacto fermented condiment recipes, I'll be trying some of these!

This is just the tip of the ice burg, I hope you found these links helpful, I will update from time to time when I come across more great, informative articles.

Two Parties for Eilan and an Anniversary

Six years ago, May 1st, my husband and I celebrated our ninth Anniversary, we also welcomed our little girl into the world that day as well, I can't think of a more perfect gift than that!

This year for her birthday, my wonderful friend and sister in Christ, Paula, suggested we have a Birthday Tea Party. She said she had everything all ready, teapots, tea cups, saucers, warmers, plates, 3 tiered stands ( we did use one of mine) all we needed was some giggly girls! Thanks to Paula and her two beautiful daughters, Katie and Bonnie, Eilan had an elegant, gorgeous, fun filled party.

The beautiful young ladies (aka giggly girls)

Some of the finger foods...they were all so good and most of them were gluten free. We had a few sandwiches on regular bread for the ladies that did not eat gluten free.

Beautiful table!

Love the colors!

Paula has everything, gorgeous teapots and warmers too! 

Birthday girl and her love for all things pigs :)

The young ladies had their own beautifully decorated table.

My wonderful Sisters in Christ.

I loved spending the day with these lovely ladies!

Ready to sing the Birthday song

Paula, helping Eilan while she blows out her candle.

Cake balls that Paula and I made, they were supposed to be cake pops...oops. Tasted delicious though and nobody knew they were supposed to be cake pops.

Chantel won the sugar cube stacking game!

Eilan showing off some of the gifts she received. She now has her own  pretty hat and is ready for future tea parties.

I am ashamed to say, I did not contribute much, all the beauty and creativity you see is from Paula and her talented daughters! I did however, learn so much in working with them and planning the party, now all I need is to start collecting tea things :)

Thank you so much Paula, Katie and Bonnie for all the hard work you did to give my daughter a day to remember, we love you!!

If this wasn't enough, Eilan also had another party with my family! We went to my Dad's house for the evening to hang out and have some ice cream cake and that was a lot of fun too. The cousins had a chance to play together and catch up on all the things that have happened since Christmas. Meanwhile the adults were able to talk and catch up as well. I love talking to my Sis-in-law, Camilla, she and I have some good conversations on health and well, just about everything. We definitely need to find more excuses to get the family together despite our busy schedules.

Eilan with her Grandpa (My Dad)

My brother Garm and his daughter Madison

Cousins and best buds! Kade, Mattias and Aiden

Mattias and Aiden. 

Eilan and her cousin Madison, they love each other too.

Eric and his baby girl!



Last but not least, to my handsome, hunky husband, I love you so much and thank you for fifteen wonderful years together, may the Lord bless us with many more years together! My husband surprised me on our Anniversary with a waffle maker I had been wanting, I opened it and he said "OK, now make some waffles" I laughed and told him to wait till Saturday. On Saturday morning, I made us all some delicious waffles with my new waffle maker that I absolutely love!