Spaghata Nadle! (Spaghetti Noodle Substitute)

If you're a fan of blogs and you have a sense of humour, you've probably seen Allie Brosh's wonderful Hyperbole and a Half. We love pretty much everything she posts, although we really hope she finds her way through her current trials. It's amazing how you kinda get to know someone through their blog, and their pain can sometimes feel as personal to you as your friend's or sister's. Get well soon, Allie!

Anyhoo, one of our all time favourite posts themes (for reasons as yet unfathomed) was the Spaghata Nadle. We found it absolutely hilarious, and applicable to virtually any situation you face. I won't elaborate - check it  out for ourself. 

Again, I don't know why this should be, but for some reason this dinner ingredient always makes me think of spaghata nadles. Perhaps because it's so very almost like spaghetti noodles ... but not. Here's what we do instead of spaghetti noodles for bolognaise and meatball dishes:

Zucchini Noodles 

(Courgettes if you feel fancy (or French); baby marrows if you're from the East Rand originally. Don't worry, we won't judge.)

Ingredients

Lots of baby marrows/zucchinis/courgettes

garlic

Salt

Olive oil for sautéeing

Method

Wash and peel the courgettes.

Grate or peel them into long, thin slices (this takes practise).

Heat the oil until it is about medium hot.

Add the courgettes and let them brown for a few minutes.

Add salt and garlic to taste.

Stir occasionally.

Keep checking on them until they just start to turn light brown on some of the edges.

Serve them hot on their own or topped with bolognaise sauce or meat balls. Or anything you like, really.

Delicious.

Delicious VEGAN chocolate mousse - packing a secret antioxidant punch!

The year before last we attended a GREEN Tasting evening. Everything was organic, from the coffee to the meat to the cheese to the wine - even the packaging! It was a wonderful evening hosted by The Big Green Directory, and we were amazed at the range of GREEN options available, not to mention how reasonably priced everything was.

Our favourite items that evening were the Moroccan Lamb sausage from Hope Meats (also available on Saturday mornings from our farmers' market. Brilliant!), and the chocolate mousse. Well, naturally.

The reasons we loved loved loved this mousse were:

• It's packed full of antioxidants (from the cocoa and the secret ingredient).
• It's vegan (we're not, but we're sympathisers. As long as there's biltong, I'll never be vegan).
• It's free of bad fats and full of good ones.
• It tastes AMAZING.
• You don't have to stop eating it for any reason - except the clang of the bottom of the bowl hitting your teeth, of course!

So, without further ado, and with permission from the incredibly clever and inspired Rolene of RAWLean, here's the solution to your chocolate cravings:

RAWLean's Delicious Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados
• ½ cup organic raw cacao powder (most health stores will have this)
• ¼ cup agave nectar (check sweetness to taste)
• ½ vanilla pod or 2tbs vanilla extract
• 1tbs coconut oil
• Seasonal berries

Method: 

Blend all ingredients in a food blender until smooth. Allow to set in the fridge for one hour. Serve in a wine glass with seasonal berries for garnish.

Chocolate Cookies!!

Yes, I know. Not one but two exclamation marks. It's a crime against grammar and a grievous assault against the English language. All I need to do now is reformat this entire post in Comic Sans and we'll know that The End is upon us.

However, the hyperpunctuation is not without merit. Because today I discovered .. wait for it ... SCD cookies! Delicious, easy, quick and perfectly legal if you overlook SCD's aversion to chocolate. In my not-at-all-humble opinion, modern research says a lot about the anti-oxidant properties of cocoa and how good it is for your heart.

But frankly, a single, poorly researched, dubiously funded sentence in a throw-away trash-mag would be more than enough to convince me to make one small SCD concession because, let's face it, I'm never giving up chocolate.

Today I stumbled across this recipe. I adapted it as detailed below and I must admit that the results have been consumed utterly. Not even a crumb to mark the passage. So much of yummmm ...

Sugar-free, dairy-free, flourless CHOCOLATE cookies

• 3/4 cup of organic raw honey (or more to taste), slightly softened
• 3 egg whites
• 15 drops of pure vanilla extract
• a pinch of teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder (or less - this is a very strong taste. Heaven).

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Beat all the ingredients together until the result is a smooth, frosting-like heavy cream that is virtually impossible not to devour. Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased or parchment lined baking sheet (grease the parchment) (I didn't grease the paper and the cookies did stick a little bit. I was forced to chew the remnants off throw away the excess).  Bake for about 12-15 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want them - longer =  crunchier. Place on a wire rack to cool (if you can help yourself).

Organic food and other options

The more we read about the various disorders linked to Tourette Syndrome, ADD and the like, and how many people find relief from the symptoms of these through diet changes, the more we discover that food from organic sources comprises a vital component of the process.

A lot of people find it hard to find organic produce, and even when they do, it is often prohibitively expensive. This light relief provides a little insight into the true cost of "going organic"; however, it's easy to be smug when we live just a few km from one of the best fresh produce markets in the country (imnsho).

The Shongweni Farmers' and Craft Market.
What a great place. We go every single Saturday (vehicle permitting). This week we first had a short 3km run, followed by witnessing an absolutely spectacular sunrise. At the market by 7am, we found all the fresh produce and organic meat we needed - all locally produced - and even shared a cup of absolutely wonderful Assagay Coffee with our pastor.

Sadly, our favourite yoghurt seller had either left already by the time we arrived, or didn't come at all. But we did get organic honey, chicken and minced beef, as well as a wide selection of delicious vegetables - including some of the best beetroot I've ever tasted.

We love organic, and we love local!

Spotlight on Gluten

Today I went to a fascinating talk on living the low carbohydrate lifestyle, presented by Lucille Cholerton. It was an interesting look at this new lifestyle that we've adopted (from a slightly different angle). I learnt a lot and met some great new friends who are on a similar journey. It was lovely to connect with folks who really "get it", and to be able to offer some information and support, too.

Lucille is a gluten counsellor and author.

From Amazon.com:

Lucille Cholerton is a specialist in gluten sensitivity and coeliac disease. She and her three grown children all suffer from gluten sensitivity. Read her story in Spotlight on Gluten: New symptoms for the new millennium? Or long-standing symptoms now being recognized? 

She says, "Age is very pertinent to the subject of gluten sensitivity. This disorder should really be diagnosed in childhood, but if the diagnosis is missed, people can suffer for many years with unexplained symptoms, when something that they are eating every day could be the root cause of their ill health." 

This book covers the symptoms that Cholerton and her children suffered, and how they improved their health dramatically on a gluten-free diet. The author's research spans twenty years. "In my research I discovered that gluten may be responsible for many autoimmune disorders, of which there are some eighty-eight documented. My doctors knew nothing about this, so I really had to be my own "guinea pig." 

A former teacher, Lucille Cholerton is now a nutrition counselor and is writing her next books on gluten sensitivity. "There is a dire need for better diagnosis and understanding of this disorder." She is married and lives in Durban, South Africa. She started the Gluten Intolerance/Coeliac Support Group in Durban in 1995. 

For more information about gluten, visit http://www.allergysa.org . Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/LucilleCholerton Author's Website: http://spotlightongluten.com

Coconut Butter

Yesterday I told you how awesome Chocolate-Covered Katie's vegan chocolate fudge is. Well, here's how to make the key ingredient, Coconut Butter. Trust me, this will revolutionise your baking, cooking and eating life!

Coconut Butter Recipe

Ingredients

• Coconuts
• Coconut Oil

Method

1. Take the hair off the coconut.
2. Pierce the eyes and drain the coconut.
3. Wrap the coconut in a towel and beat it with a hammer until it shatters. (This bit is immensely satisfying!)
4. Pry the coconut flesh out of the shell, then carefully cut off the brown skin outside of the coconut flesh.
5. Use a juice extractor to get the coconut milk out of the coconut flesh (Hmm, coconut milk. Sooo good in cocoa!)
6. Lightly toast the coconut in a pan, over a low heat. Toast until just brown.
7. Once the coconut has cooled, blend it in a food processor until smooth.
8. Add coconut oil and blend until it looks like coconut butter - smooth and creamy and awesome.

Coconut butter is great as frosting on cakes and cupcakes, spread on bread or toast, or eaten from the jar! (Assuming it makes it into a jar). You can use coconut butter to make the fudge yesterday, or as an ingredient in baking, in the place of nut butter or flour.

FUDGE!

We LOVE Chocolate-Covered Katie. Pretty much everything on her blog is awesome and we've tried all of it! Well, all the things we're allowed, anyway. An Aunty Em permanent favourite is the vegan sugar-free chocolate fudge. Ever since we started down the gluten-free/dairy-free/sugar-free road we've tried to create a substitute for fudge, one of the few things we could never replicate. However, thanks to Chocolate-Covered Katie we now have the perfect solution with the added virtues of good health and veganism (selective, you understand).

 We've been battling to get the coconut butter in this recipe perfect, but today we had a major breakthrough (which I will post about tomorrow). The result was awesome, delicious, smooth fudgey heaven!

Chocolate-Covered Katie's Sugar-free Vegan Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp coconut butter (see tomorrow's post)
• 1/2 a large very ripe banana
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder*
• 2 tbsp honey* (or to taste)

Method

1. Make sure your coconut butter is melted before use. (Freshly home-made coconut butter is smooth and soft already but sets if left for a while). 
2. Combine all ingredients in a small blender (or double the recipe for a bigger blender).
3. Smooth the fudge into a plastic container or chocolate molds. (Katie says plastic containers work well because it's so easy to pop the fudge out once it's set).
4. Refrigerate until set, then cut up and serve (or gobble!).

Yummmm .....

* Always, wherever possible, use pure, raw organic ingredients.

Coconut Flour Brownies

These brownies are cakey and delicious - hard to stop eating! I'm sure they'd be great with the marshmallow frosting, too.

Coconut Flour Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dessicated coconut
• 4 eggs
• 2 bananas
• 1tsp vanilla extract (NOT essence)
• 3 tbsp honey (or more, to taste)
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp cocoa (or more, to taste)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Lightly toast the coconut until just golden.
3. Blend the toasted coconut until very fine.
4. Grease and line a square baking tin (the baking paper is important, otherwise it sticks).
5. Blend all the ingredients except the lemon juice/vinegar in the blender until smooth.
6. Add the vinegar/lemon juice and blend some more.
7. Pour the mixture into the baking tray and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes, just until a skewer comes out clean. These should be a little moist.
8. Cool slightly then chop into squares and serve.

Chicken Banana Fritters

I know it sounds a little weird, and it took me a while to get my head around the idea, but these are actually delicious. The texture provides a useful and pleasant change in SCD, and this can be a good way to disguise eggs if your kids don't like them but aren't allergic. Plus they work well for any meal of the day! And they go far.

SCD Chicken Banana Fritters

Ingredients

• Four chicken pieces, broiled (we used drumsticks)
• Four eggs
• Two bananas
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Blend the ingredients together in a blender until smooth.
2. Heat a little oil in a pan (we recommend Olive Oil or Coconut Oil).
3. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil.
4. Lightly brown on both sides.
5. Salt to taste (optional).
6. Serve.

Yum!

SCD Birthday Cake

For Papa Bear's birthday the girls insisted that we should "let them eat cake!". So we did. It needed to be frosted, apparently, so we MacGuyvered a solution for that, too. We're so smart.

Here's how we did it:

SCD Pecan Nut Butter Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

Adapted from Grainfree Goodies' Nut Butter Bread recipe.

Cake Ingredients

• 1 cup of pecan nut butter
• 6 tbsp of raw honey (or to taste)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt
• Cinnamon and ginger to taste (optional)
• Finely chopped dates (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

Cake Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
2. Line a cake tin or small loaf tin with baking paper.
3. Blend all of the ingredients except the vinegar/lemon juice. (I used a blender).
4. Add the vinegar/lemon juice and blend thoroughly.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately turn it out onto wire racks to cool. Remove the paper from the sides as soon as you can otherwise it might flop.
7. Allow to cool.

Marshmallow Ingredients

(original recipe)

• 10g gelatin
• 1/4 cup ice water
• 1/4 cup raw honey (or to taste)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (not vanilla essence - #Lethal)

Marshmallow Method

1. When the cake is cool, chill a large bowl and the beater attachments from your electric beater in the fridge for at least a few minutes.
2. Pour half of the water and all of the honey and salt into a small pot and bring it to a gentle boil.

At the same time ...

1. Dissolve the gelatin in the rest of the water in the chilled bowl.
2. Slowly pour the hot honey into the gelatin, beating gently.
3. When all the honey is in the bowl, increase the speed and beat the mixture thoroughly.
4. When the mixture resembles the soft-peak meringue stage, add the vanilla extract and beat some more. 
5. Be careful: after this it sets quickly. 
6. Beat the mixture until it reaches the "marshmallow fluff" stage.
7. Pour it over the cool cake and leave it to set.
8. Cut and serve

I think this would make a great Christmas treat: use a cake tin shaped like a hill. The brown cake looks like a mountain and the white marshmallow makes perfect snow. 

SCD Lasagne that packs a Carotenoid Punch

This month is birthday month in our household, with our two most severe ADD sufferers both advancing a year within a few days of each other. To celebrate, I always let them choose their favourite meal for supper on The Day. For some reason this year everyone has chosen lasagne. I blame Garfield!

This was no problem back in June when Red Riding Hood had her birthday, when we were gluten-free and dairy-free, but not SCD in any way, having never even heard of it. In fact, only I was gluten- and dairy-free, and my beloved wasn't free of anything at all!

However, fast forward to August where we're free of everything and both Papa Bear and Goldilocks have ordered lasagne! What's a girl to do? Why, make lasagne, of course. Here's how we did it:

SCD Lasagne

Lasagne sheets ingredients

• 1 whole, fresh butternut - NOT cubed or frozen (blegh!)

Lasagne sheet method

*This bit may need experimentation*

1. Make sure you have a sharp knife.
2. Peel the butternut thoroughly. Remove the hard bits at the top and bottom.
3. Halve the butternut lengthwise.
4. Now halve the round bottom half to expose the seeds.
5. Using a table spoon, thoroughly scrape out every last seed and all the fibre around the seeds.
6. Using ingenuity and skill (of which I have masses, naturally) slice the butternut into the largest, thinnest sheets you can. Actually, largest is less necessary than you'd think - about the size of the palm of your hand should do fine.
7. Now, the first time I did this, I managed to get the slices very thin, so they cooked well inside the lasagne. The second time - not so much. If you have this problem, try gently roasting or even lightly boiling the sheets before you use them to soften them up. Hard butternut is both not SCD legal, and gross-tasting.

Do the sheets first otherwise it's a real schlepp.

White sauce ingredients

• 1 cup of SCD yoghurt (don't sub any other kind - it's really not worth it)
• 1/4 cup (or more) of water
• 1/2 cup aged cheese (ours is four years old! I love the Farmers' Market for these kinds of things)
• Half a cauliflower (obvs organic if you can, but you may have to take what you can get)
• Salt and herbs to taste (I should have used garlic and basil, but made do with salt)
• Extra cheese for on top

White sauce method

1. Boil the cauliflower until it's tender (this took a while for us).
2. Blend the cheese, yoghurt, water, herbs and salt, and some of the cauliflower in a blender. Gradually add more and more of the cauliflower until the consistency looks like what you'd expect from white sauce, and is very smooth. 
3. You can also season it after you've reached the right consistency, to taste.
   

Meat sauce ingredients

• 1 large onion
• 500g minced beef (or any meat you'd prefer. Beware of "natural flavourings" in the ingredients. #Lethal)
• Salt & garlic to taste
• 1kg carrots (approximately 10 average-sized carrots), washed, peeled and chopped into discs
• 1 bunch of beetroot, washed, peeled and cubed
  

Meat sauce method

1. Heat a little oil in a pan (we recommend olive oil or, even better, coconut oil).
2. Chop the onion finely and brown it gently in the oil.
3. Add salt and garlic to taste (I always do it at this stage. Some people sweat against it, so go with what you prefer. This works for me).
4. Add the mince and brown it thoroughly.

At the same time ...

1. Steam the carrots until they are tender. I used a pressure cooker (brilliant!), but we sometimes use a pot with a little water, a microwave steamer, or even a bamboo steamer.
2. Boil the beetroot until it is very tender.
3. Mix the mince, carrots and beetroot together.
   

Compile the lasagne

1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. In an oven-proof dish, spoon half of the mince mixture. 
3. Pour half of the white sauce onto the mince mixture.
4. Arrange the butternut sheets on top of this to cover it as well as possible.
5. Pour the rest of the mince sauce on top of the butternut sheets.
6. Spoon about 2/3 of the remaining white sauce on top of the mince, and top with more butternut. You only need one layer of butternut at a time.
7. Spread the rest of the white sauce as well as possible over the butternut, then top with as much cheese as you like.
8. Cook, covered, until the butternut is tender when poked with a fork.
9. Uncover it and grill for a few minutes, until the cheese bubbles and browns slightly.
10. Serve it!

Serves 8

SCD, Tourette's and Autism

I am reading a fascinating book called "Natural Treatments for Tics & Tourette's" by Sheila J. Rogers. The more we read about tics and Tourett Syndrome, the more we see a clear link between these disorders and our family. The fascinating thing for me, however, is how an elimination diet not unlike SCD could well yield tremendous results. More research is needed, but it looks like food and environmental factors could potentially play a massive role in treating our quirks. Even more reason to adopt a healthy, organic, sugar- and preservaive-free lifestyle!

The secret to amazing nut and seed butters

This is probably not news to any of you, but today I was delighted to discover the secret to smooth, delicious, easy-to-make seed and nut butters: lightly roast the nuts or seeds first! I think I read this online once (and as we all know, everything you read online is true!).

Today I roasted 2/3 of a cup of pecan nuts with 1/3 of a cup of sunflower seeds, then I zhoozed them in the blender with some sunflower oil (yes, I know.) and a little salt. It would have been even better with honey, but in the absence of that, it was still utterly delicious - and the perfect basis for my wonderful Nut Butter Loaf of Great Awesomeness.

Yet again, hyperconsumptionism has resulted in Photographic Evidence Deficit Disorder. My bad.

Butternut & Carrot Soup

This delicious soup was created by the eponymous Aunty Em herself and is delicious! We'd post pics but it's been eaten already. Maybe next time.

SCD Butternut & Carrot Soup

Ingredients

·         1 butternut

·         6-7 carrots

·         1 onion

·         1 chicken stock cube

·         ginger, cumin, paprika, cinnamon

·         salt to taste

·         peel of one orange

Method

·         Peel & chop veg.

·         Sauté the onions with the spices.

·         Add veg and stock dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water.

·         Add 1.5 litres of water.

·         Add peel.

·         Allow to simmer until veg is mushy.

·         Remove orange peel and blend or push through a sieve. (Try to remove onion for Intro and phase 1 of the diet).

Pecan butter

This evening I literally drooled on myself. An embarassing admission when one is just months away from middle age. Even so, it is true. The reason? Pecan Butter. I have been battling a bit with all the butters, but the simple additions of honey and oil made this delicious butter smooth and wonderful. I'll use it for baking a birthday cake tomorrow, and if possible take pics. The experiment might not survive the taste testers long enough to be photographed!