Towers Family Chiropractor

Helping You to Better Health Naturally

Superfood Pancakes

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Special occasion pancakes for sure!  Maybe for a birthday or other celebration?  The good news is these pancakes taste like dessert with the optionals but have no added sweetener if made as plain blueberry pancakes.  This is a gluten-free and sugar-free, quick and easy recipe filled with superfoods that kids will love.

 

 

Serves 2

1 cup finely shredded dried coconut

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

1/4 cup whole flax seed, ground in a blender

1 large ripe pear, skinned and cored

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

4 eggs

1/2 cup coconut milk or water

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1/4 cup walnut pieces, optional

1/4 of a bar of 85 to 90% dark chocolate, cup up in 1/2 inch square pieces or 2 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional

ghee and honey as topping, optional

 

In a food processor place the coconut, arrowroot, ground flax seed, baking powder, and salt.  Pulse just enough to mix well.  Add chopped pear, eggs, and coconut milk or water.  Process until thoroughly blended.

Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Add a little ghee just to grease the bottom lightly–use a spatula to spread evenly.  As soon as the pan is hot, spoon 2-3 Tbsp. of batter per pancake.  Immediately place 6 or so blueberries on each pancake and a few walnut pieces if desired.  Adjust the heat down if necessary so the pancakes do not burn–3-5 minutes per side usually does it in my pan.  When you see little bubbles forming on the outside it’s time to flip them.  If desired, place a few chocolate pieces or chocolate chips on the top after flipping–they will melt while that side down cooks.  Gently spread the melted chocolate over the top.  Place on a plate and top with a tsp. of ghee and some honey if desired.  A 1/2 tsp of honey per pancake is all it takes to sweeten these up.  Serve while warm.

 

Bacon Rollups

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This is a quick meal if you have some bacon and leftover brown rice on hand.  We use organic turkey bacon, but preferably bacon should also be from pasture-raised animals whether it is turkey or pork.  Also, these would be good for breakfast or lunch and kids will love them.  Use other vegetables for the rice mixture if you wish and serve some extra of this rice mixture with the rollups.

 

 

Serves 2

4 strips of bacon

2 cups cooked brown rice

2 Tbsp. ghee

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped squash–I used delicata which is the most delicious in my mind but not so easy to find

1 cup thinly sliced rounds of daikon radish, if the radish is large half it or quarter it lengthwise before slicing

1 tsp. ground cumin seed

Organic tamari to taste (replace with salt if desired); and optional hot pepper sauce to taste

Melt the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and stir a few times for 5 minutes to slightly brown the onions.  Add the other vegetables and stir well.  Continue to heat over medium heat stirring a few times for another 5 minutes until the vegetables are all tender or easily pierced with a fork.  Stir in the rice.  Heat for another few minutes.  Season with cumin and tamari or salt, to taste.  Add hot pepper sauce if desired.  Set aside rice mix and cook the bacon however you like–I use a toaster oven set at 350 degree F for five minutes or so.  Place the bacon on a plate and spoon some rice mixture on each strip.  Spread it evenly while pressing it down.  Roll up the bacon and serve on a plate with some extra rice mixture.  Enjoy while still warm but I suppose they would be good cold too.

 

 

 

Easy Butternut Squash

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Thinking of putting up more food?  Don’t forget the vegetables that store very well with no fuss.  Butternut squash and sweet potatoes are on the top of the list.  We grow them and usually have 30-40 butternuts that we store and eat over the winter months.  They keep amazingly well in a cool basement.  And don’t forget that butternut squash make excellent “pumpkin” pies.

An easy way to prepare butternut is to bake it whole in a baking pan in a 350 degree F oven for about an hour or until it is soft–a knife should easily pierce the top end (not the round end with the seed cavity).  Remove from the oven and cut in half.  Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard.  Cut into serving sizes leaving the skin.  Top each serving with 1 tsp of ghee or butter.  Season with dried onion powder, salt, and other herb seasoning of your choice if desired.  Eat out of the skin (discarding the skin) while still warm.

Fig Leather

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Figs are usually eaten dried, but if you have fresh figs in excess this recipe  idea is a breakthrough.   It may have limited relevance–how many of you have a fig tree?  Or a farmers market where they are available?  Well, this recipe is for you!   If you are a gardener, I highly recommend planting a fig tree.  Here in  Roanoke we have a brown turkey variety (in a protected sunny location)  that has survived the winters for several years now.  It dies back during colder winters but even without protecting it by wrapping it for winter, it continues to survive and produce.  It is easy to grow organically as there are really no pest problems that we have had.   Anyway, making fruit leather is an easy way to preserve this highly perishable fruit.  No cooking and no added sugar necessary–a real plus considering what canning recipes suggest.

I used a 140 degree F convection drying oven overnight but you could use a food dehydrator.  If you do, follow their directions because it will likely take longer to dry if you dry at a lower temperature.  Be sure the leather is thoroughly dried before ending drying–press the center with your finger and if there is no indentation it is dry. Also be sure to remove the leather from the pan before it cools or it will stick to the pan–follow the precautions in the update below so you don’t end up with stuck-to-the-pan fruit leather!

Wash at least 1 quart of fresh figs–any variety.  Cut the stems off–if there is white flesh around the stem that does not taste sweet remove it with the stem (some fig varieties will have this more than others).  Quarter the figs and place in a food processor.  Pulse a few times just to mash them into a puree–not to the point of being a smooth consistency.  You want it a little chunky.   If you want to reduce  browning stir in 2 tsp. lemon juice per quart of fresh fruit.  Pour into pyrex or stainless steel baking pans to a depth of between 1/4 to  1/2 inch (no more).

Place in a 140 degree F oven.  I have a convection drying option which works well.  Depending on how much moisture is in your figs and how thick the paste is in your pan will determine the drying time.   Your final product will be just like fruit leather–sweet and chewy which means it sticks to your teeth so watch out for that!  If you don’t dry it long enough it will be somewhat spongy or gelatinous and won’t keep as well nor taste as good in my opinion.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:  If you are using regular baking pans (not a dehydrator), please take note or you may have a lot of trouble removing the leather from the pan.  After making several batches of fig leather I have found that taking the following steps makes removing the leather from the pan easy.

  1. Cut the leather when it is half dry–it will be shiny but still spongy and will still indent when pressed in the center (see photo below).  It needs to be dry enough that it doesn’t tear.  This may be after 6 to 9 hours of drying time–depends on the thickness of the fruit puree.   Do this while the leather is still warm–immediately after taking out of the oven.
  2. Lift the cut pieces (strips or squares) with a spatula and flip over.  Place the pan back in the drying oven and continue drying until it’s perfect (no indentation left after pressing with your finger).
  3. I have also greased my pans with a very little amount of ghee.  It is hardly noticeable in the final product but if you follow the two steps above you won’t need the ghee.

 

Remove from oven and immediately remove the pieces from the pan with a spatula.  It should lift right out if you followed the steps above.   Here are the  squares

and the rolled up strips.  Roll the strips up while still warm.

Cool completely before storing.  Store in an air-tight zip lock bag or a container or roll up in plastic wrap–vacuum pack if you have the equipment.  Apparently, moisture in the air is a problem for dried fruit so keeping it air-tight is very important.  Fruit leather is said to store at room storage if tightly wrapped for about 1 month (mine stored at room temperature for months) and for 1 year if kept in the freezer (I haven’t tried freezing it.).  If it is vacuum sealed it would likely keep at room temperature a lot longer than a month.

Strawberry Kevita Slush

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Want a healthy slush to cool off and refresh?  The carbonation from the Kevita (a cultured coconut water beverage available in health food stores) gives this drink nice fizz.  And it supplies real  food–real fruit without being high glycemic.  It’s a good idea to keep some frozen fruit in the freezer whether for ice cream/sorbet or smoothies/slushes.  You could use any berries in this recipe.

Serves 1

3/4 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup mojita lime mint Kevita

monk fruit powder or stevia to sweeten more to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy sipping before it looses its fizz.

Kohlrabi

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Kohlrabi is an interesting vegetable to grow and to eat–look at the picture and the way it grows in a bulb shape right at ground level with leaves whirling out.  This variety is purple but once peeled it is almost white inside.  It’s not commonly eaten in the US but it likely can be found in markets with good organic produce sections or at your local farmers markets.  Even though it is in the cruciferous family with cabbage and broccoli it is mild tasting.  I know some folks like to eat it raw but this family of vegetables is better for you cooked until just tender.

Serves 2-4

1 kohlrabi, about 4 inches in diameter, peeled and cut into match-stick size pieces

1 carrot, cut in 1/8-inch half-rounds

1 small zucchini, 6-8 inches long, cut in 1/4-inch quarter rounds

2 Tbsp. ghee

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

tamari or chickpea miso to taste

salt and black pepper to taste if desired

red pepper flakes to taste if desired

Prepare/slice all vegetables but keep separate.  Melt the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic, stir and add the kohlrabi right away so that the garlic does not brown or burn.  Stir well and cover with a lid for a few minutes.  Add the carrot, stir well and cover again.  Give this mixture a stir every few minutes and cook with the lid on until just tender–maybe 5 minutes or so.  Add the zucchini, tamari or miso (mix 1 Tbsp. miso with 2 Tbsp. water before adding), and the rest of the seasonings and stir well.  Turn the heat off and keep covered for 5 more minutes to allow the zucchini to cook.   Add more seasonings to taste if desired and serve immediately.

 

Sauerkraut Time

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Harvest time already!  This red variety of Chinese cabbage is beautifully colored so I wanted to post a picture of it and link it to the previous post for the recipe.  I grow the Napa type of cabbage because it matures faster than the round varieties and is not as strong tasting.  This year I grew a red variety.  Here is the previous recipe for making sauerkraut with this type of cabbage–even though it was with green cabbage the recipe is the same.  Check out your farmer’s markets and see what you can find if you don’t have your own garden cabbage.

Collards with Noodles

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If you have problems getting your children or friends to try collard greens (picture above: kale, collards, turnip greens), this is a good recipe to introduce them into the wonderful world of cruciferous greens.  We have had young, tender collard greens from our garden over the last few months.  These are easy to grow especially in early Spring or Fall.  If you grow them into the summer months they need to be sprayed every few weeks with a BT solution (Bacillus thurengenesis) which is a safe, organic way to kill cabbage moth worms which typically destroy cruciferous vegetables once summer temperatures kick in.

Another unusual vegetable in this recipe is fennel root–similar to celery but it is less watery and has a slightly sweet anise flavor.  I slice this very thin and put it in salads or saute with other vegetables as I do here.  Don’t go heavy on the noodles–the idea is to dilute them with vegetables in order to reduce carbohydrate intake.  The noodles can be replaced with brown rice or quinoa (as seen in the picture).

Serves 2

3 large cloves garlic

1 Tbsp. ghee

2 cups of finely chopped collard greens

1/2 cup of finely chopped fennel root

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup cooked organic brown rice fettucine

salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, melt ghee and add garlic.  Stir for a minute over medium heat until it just starts to sizzle.  Add fennel root and stir again for a few minutes.  Add collards and stir again.  Add broth and reduce heat to low and cover with lid cracked.  Heat through for about 10 minutes until greens are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Now add the cooked rice noodles.  Stir well and serve in bowls.

 

 

GF Strawberry Shortcake

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2021 is turning out to be a good year for strawberries–we are overloaded!  Don’t forget about this shortcake recipe originally published 5/11/20.

Strawberries have come early this year so we had them for Mother’s Day.  This gluten-free recipe is dairy-free also except for the ghee, but I make an exception for ghee as being very likely safe for those on a dairy-free diet.   I think that the ghee could be substituted with coconut oil but I have not tried it.  Instead of whipped cream, use the coconut cream recipe posted previously.

Remember to buy organic strawberries if you don’t have them in your garden.  Berries are generally sprayed heavily and people have been known to react to the chemicals  from eating a lot of in-season berries.

Also, be careful making substitutions for the sugar in this recipe as it could change the texture with undesirable results.    The sugar prevents the arrowroot from making the shortcake gummy.  You could use coconut sugar or sucanat  but the cake will not be white–it will be brown.  Honey or maple syrup will totally change the texture so I stick with a small amount of cane sugar on this one.  I add more sweetness to the cake with the monk fruit powder.   Taste your batter and decide if it is sweet enough and add more monk fruit powder in very small amounts until you achieve your desired result.

Serves 4

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

2/3 cup dry finely shredded coconut

3 Tbsp. organic sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. melted ghee

1 egg

1/2 to 1 tsp. organic pure monk fruit powder (only ingredient should be monk fruit)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon zest (optional)

 

2 cups sliced organic strawberries

1 cup coconut whipped cream

 

Mix the first 5 (dry) ingredients in a food processor.  Add the egg, melted ghee, vanilla extract, lemon zest if desired, and process again until well mixed.  Spread in a 8 inch x 8 inch baking pan.  Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean–do not over-bake or cake will be dry.

Let cool.  Cut into 4 squares and serve each square with 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/4 cup of coconut cream .

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted Potatoes

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Who needs another recipe for roasted vegetables?  If you are using olive oil and a 450 degree oven, you may want to reconsider.  I want to put it out there that you can use ghee instead of other heat-sensitive oils and use a lower temperature and still get good results.  Keep in mind that oils are susceptible to damage from heat.  The fats that are safer to heat are ghee and coconut oil–I prefer the flavor of ghee.  This same recipe can be used for sweet potatoes and other vegetables.  I’ve tried Jerusalem artichokes also–be sure to slice these thin and don’t hesitate to use a mixture of your favorite vegetables.  Keep in mind that some cook faster than others–cut the starchy ones that cook slower into 1/4 inch slices.

White/red potatoes are a rare treat for us because they are so starchy and high-glycemic.  For special occasions they are perfect!

 

Serves 2

2  medium potatoes (red or white), cut in half length-wise and then sliced in 1/4 inch pieces

1 tsp. dried onion flakes or granules (available from Frontier Co-op with no other ingredients and no salt)

1/2 to 1 tsp. sea salt (use a 1/2 tsp. before baking and then salt more to taste if desired before serving)

black pepper, optional

1 Tbsp. ghee

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.   Melt ghee in the pre-heating oven in a baking tray large enough to accommodate the potatoes in a thin layer–about 9 X 12 inches. Remove the pan from the oven and add the potato slices stirring well to coat the potatoes in the melted ghee.  Add the salt, onion flakes and black pepper.  Stir well and spread out so the pieces are not on top of each other.  Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Use a spatula and loosen them, and flip them as best you can.  Place back in the oven and bake another 10-15 minutes until lightly browned and tender.  They should be crispy and perfectly salty so salt to taste.   Serve immediately.

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Towers Family Chiropractic

2302 Colonial Ave, SW, Roanoke, VA 24015
(540) 343-6636

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