Monica’s Recipes

A cup of this before a meal will warm you up, stimulate digestion, and act as an anti-inflammatory.  All of that and it is pretty tasty.  A serving is about 1/2 to 1 cup so this should serve 2-4.

1 tsp. ghee

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. cardamom powder

1/2 tsp. ginger powder

pinch of ground black pepper

1/2 cup coconut milk (Native Forest is a good organic brand)

1  1/2 cups water or black tea of your choice

1-2 tsp. maple syrup or monk fruit powder to taste

Melt ghee in sauce pan.  Over medium-low heat, add spices and stir well until it browns lightly–just a minute or so.  Pour in coconut milk and stir well.  Continue to heat and add water or tea.  Add monk fruit powder to taste.  Serve hot.

 

Dense but not too sweet, these brownies will please most chocolate lovers.  They do contain sugar–but a reduced amount–so best to make them for special occasions.  The monk fruit powder is a good sweetener when you want to reduce the sugar in a recipe.  Be careful when you buy it though because many monk fruit products also contain erythritol.   I try to avoid the sugar alcohols as they can cause digestive disturbances.  If you don’t have palm oil, you could use coconut oil instead though I prefer the taste of the palm oil.

1/4  cup ghee

1/4 cup red palm oil

1/3 cup organic cacao powder

Organic baking chocolate (a piece about 1/2 inch wide by 4 inches long), Dakoba is a good brand

3 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup organic coconut sugar or cane sugar

1/2 tsp. monkfruit powder, more to taste to increase sweetness

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup coconut milk

3/4 cups chopped walnuts

In a double boiler, melt oils and baking chocolate.  Remove from heat and add  cacao powder.  Set aside.

In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients and add beaten eggs and coconut milk.  Mix well.  Add cacao mixture and beat with an electric beater until smooth.  Fold in chopped nuts.

Spoon into a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Insert clean knife in center and bake until knife comes out clean.  Let cool.  If desired, frost with a mixture of  4 Tbsp cacao powder, 2 Tbsp. honey, and 1-2 Tbsp. coconut milk (enough to form the desired consistency) with a dash of vanilla extract.  Serve warm or cold.

 

 

 

The dressing makes a salad and it compliments salads containing bitter vegetables such as radicchio, arugula, dandelion leaves, and mustard greens.   Remember, the bitter tasting vegetables stimulate bile flow and aid digestion so be sure to use them in your salads and try to eat your salad at the beginning of your meal.  Enhance your salad’s general appeal by using at least half mild tasting lettuce such as romaine.  Also, avoid adding  tough/fibrous greens to your salads as these are better digested when they are cooked, marinated, or fermented  (this includes kale, collards, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower).  And, don’t be stingy with the dressing–pour a couple of tablespoons on!  The oil helps with absorption of the nutrients in the vegetables.

Try making the dressing with and without the miso–it’s delicious either way but there will be recipes that may be better without the miso taste.  Double or triple the recipe so you have enough in the fridge to last a week.

 

1 Tbsp. prepared yellow mustard

1 Tbsp. organic miso (I like the chickpea variety from MisoMaster)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I have used the vinegar liquid from the marinated red onions which give a nice onion flavor.)

1-2 tsp. honey

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place all ingredients except the oil in a jar and mix very well.  Add the olive oil and mix again.  The miso is salty so you should not have to add salt but you may wish to add some ground black pepper.  Pour on your salad just before serving.

Now that fresh basil is more plentiful–I’ve got a lot already in the garden–let’s make good use of it by preparing this quick, flavorful oil. Remember that preparing ahead when you have time (the weekend?) makes eating well  EASIER when you are busy.  This delicious oil keeps in the fridge a week or so and is very convenient for dressing boiled eggs, salads, pasta, steamed vegetables, grains, and breads–make a pizza with the gluten-free bread I linked and use the basil oil instead of tomato sauce.  It is reminiscent of pesto (see recipe here) but a lot easier!  All you need is a blender.

Also, if you are using it for salad dressing, just add 1 Tbsp. of this oil per 1 cup of salad vegetables and toss.  Then drizzle 1 Tbsp. lemon juice for each Tbsp. of oil and toss again. 

1 cup fresh basil leaves (packed)
1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil and 1 Tbsp. ghee

1 clove garlic
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt to taste

Place basil leaves, ghee, salt, and garlic in the blender container.  Pour enough olive oil over them to just cover  (about 1/4 cup).  Blend until really smooth.  Place in glass jar and cap.  Ready for use immediately.  Keep refrigerated.

This is a gelatin dessert that is light and not too sweet–perfect for warmer weather.  Read through the directions carefully before beginning since there are several steps and some could be confusing and some require extra time for chilling.

I like serving this gelled dessert with strawberries which are a low sugar fruit.   It is made with organic, pure pineapple juice (bottled, not made from concentrate–found in health food stores).   Best to keep the portion size small as too much fructose, even if it is from whole fruit or whole fruit juice, is not a good thing.  It can contribute to a fatty liver and who wants that? 

Also, the gelatin won’t set if you add fresh pineapple juice or pineapple fruit to it–the pineapple has to be heated (canned or pasteurized) to deactivate the enzyme that prevents gelatin from working.  One other note, you could use organic whipping cream instead of the coconut whipped cream.  The recipe for coconut whipped cream is here. 

Serves 4
1 Tbsp. of gelatin (I use Great Lakes–be sure to get their gelatin as the collagen they sell won’t gel.  You could use Knox but Great Lakes is much better quality.)
1/4 cup cold water
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. organic cane sugar
2 cups organic, made from fresh fruit not concentrate, pure pineapple juice
1/8 tsp. sea salt
zest from 1 orange or 1 tsp. orange extract
coconut whipped cream made from 1 can of classic coconut milk (follow link above for recipe).

Soak the gelatin in the water in a cup and stir to dissolve.  Set aside.
Combine the egg yolks, sugar, juice, and salt in a sauce pan.  Use an immersion blender to blend (or a hand electric mixer).  Stir constantly over low heat until it simmers but do not boil it–as soon as you see some steam start to rise from the mixture take it off the heat and add the dissolved gelatin.  Stir very well. Add the orange extract or zest and stir again.   Pour half of this mixture into a small pyrex baking dish that you just rinsed with cold water–pour all of the rinse water out but do not dry the dish as this wetness will help remove the dessert when you serve it. (Remember, you are making 4 servings so that your dish should be the right size for later dividing into 4 servings–you could use any glass container you have as long as it has a flat bottom.)  Leave the remaining half of the mixture in the sauce pan. 

Note:  Your final product will have 2 layers–one plain and the other creamy with the whipped coconut cream folded into it.  Cover and refrigerate both  halves of the mixture.  You want the half in the pyrex dish to set or gel plain while the other half in the pan needs to be combined with the whipped coconut cream later–as soon as it starts to gel.  It may take an hour or two for the latter to start to gel so keep an eye on it.  As soon as it thickens enough to mound a little on a spoon, remove the pan from the refrigerator and fold in all but 1/4 cup of the whipped coconut cream.  Save the  1/4  cup of  whipped coconut cream in the refrigerator to dollop on top of the final product later.

The other half of the mixture in the dish in the refrigerator is likely close to set.  As soon as it jiggles like jello, remove from the fridge and spoon the creamy mixture on top and use a spatula to evenly spread it.   Cover and return to the refrigerator so that the top layer gels more.  It should be ready to serve in an hour or so.  Right before serving, top each portion with the remaining whipped coconut cream and strawberries if desired.