Cow’s Milk Free Quiche

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Quiche is a family favorite, but given the amount of milk and cheese in it, we haven’t had it in over a year. Our chickens gave us so many eggs recently, that I could think of no other way to use them other than in a quiche. So, I experimented, and it worked the first time, which is amazing. The texture is not perfectly the same as if it had milk and cheese, but the flavor is very similar, and my kids still eat it, so it must be good.

Every good quiche starts with an amazing crust. I use this crust recipe for every crust I ever make, pumpkin pie, apple pie, chicken pot pie, and quiche. This is a butter crust, so if butter is on your list of no-nos, there are shortening and oil crusts out there that some people prefer, but the butter crust is my favorite, and thankfully our lactose intolerees can handle it.

Butter Pastry Crust

1 C flour
1/4 t salt
6 T butter
1 egg

Combine flour and salt in a small bowl. Cut in butter and mix using a pastry blender. Add egg and form dough into a ball. Flour a flat surface and a rolling pin. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Gently place crust into pie pan and form edge as desired.

For a quiche, cover crust with foil and place rice or beans on top of the foil to keep crust from bubbling up. Cook in a 450°F preheated oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Remove crust from oven and lower temperature to 325°F.

Filling

4 T butter or oil
4 T cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1 1/2 C coconut milk, divided
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t pepper, divided
3/4 t salt, divided
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 C FD* onion or 1/2 fresh onion
7 eggs
3 C swish chard, chopped

*freeze dried

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in cornstarch. Add 1 C of coconut milk all at once. Stir to incorporate with butter mixture. Add cayenne pepper, 1/4 t pepper, 1/4 t salt and garlic powder. Stir continuously. Sauce will start to boil and then thicken. Remove from heat when it has the same consistency as gravy, and allow to cool.

In a frying pan, brown ground beef and add onion.

Place eggs in a medium bowl, and add 1/2 C of coconut milk. Whisk in coconut and butter sauce. It will be lumpy. Add beef and onion mixture and swish chard. Pour into crust and cook in a 325°F oven for 60 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

Chicken Zucchini Soup

2013-09-15_12-42-33_387One day, when I was a brand new mother, I opened a can of Cambell’s chicken noodle soup, heated it up, and was disgusted by it. So much so that I searched and searched for the perfect chicken noodle soup recipe, and settled on a combination of a few. The perfected recipe is here. We have enjoyed this recipe many many times, and I was so sad to see it go when I discovered the amazingly delicious and healthy world of Paleo eating. To top it off, the only thing in the soup that is not Paleo is the noodles, but without them you just have chicken soup, which is kind of boring.

Being a year into Paleo eating, and having a huge surplus of zucchini, I decided to do what any good Paleo eater does and sub zucchini for noodles. It was pure perfection. No heartburn for my husband, no sluggish feeling for me, and the kids went for seconds and thirds. We are, also, a month into our crazy plan to be out of debt by January 2014, so I made this using food storage. Feel free to refer back to the original recipe for whole food amounts if you don’t want to use food storage to make this.

4 T butter
½ C FD onions
½ C dehydrated carrots
½ C FD celery
2 quarts of liquid, chicken broth, water, or a combination
Salt
Pepper
1 t Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
2 C FD chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken
1 medium zucchini, shredded

In large soup pot, over medium heat, melt butter. Sauté FD onions in butter, and add some liquid before the onions burn. Add carrots and celery, remaining liquid, and spices. Allow to simmer for five minutes. Add FD chicken or cut up rotisserie chicken and zucchini. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Serve warm

Note: The more water you use, the more salt you will need.

Zucchini Raisin Cookies

Hi everyone! It’s been a while, and to make up for so much time not posting anything, I have a fantastic recipe that will use up all your giant zucchinis that got away from you. One giant zucchini can probably make three or four batches of these delicious cookies.
zucchini cookies

2 C water
1 C raisins
2 C flour
1/4 t salt
1 t soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t cloves
1/2 C butter, soft but not melted
2 C zucchini, shredded
1/2 C honey

1. Boil raisins in water until only 1 C of water remains. Reduce heat to medium so as not to loose too much water, and add more water to bring up to 1 C if needed.

2. While raisins are boiling, combine flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl.

3. Add butter to the flour mixture and cut in with a pastry blender.

4. Add zucchini and honey to the flour mixture.

5. Add 1 C of raisin water and raisins to the flour mixture. Dough/batter (it’s kind of in between the two) should be thick.

6. Spread on greased cookie sheet.

7. Cook at 375°F for 15 minutes.

Viola! Delicious zucchini and raisin goodness in mere minutes.

Spelt Pancakes

IMAG1702Spelt is a grain, very similar to flour, but it behaves slightly different. It has gluten, so it will hold things together, but it doesn’t keep things in a nice, tidy package. I experimented with Spelt today by making pancakes for breakfast. When I got it right, they looked amazing and were delicious. The first two attempts, however, produced flat pancakes, that nobody has wanted to try so far. Those two were just Spelt. With mouths to feed, I gave up on my Spelt experimenting, and added some whole wheat flour. The results were great. Still mostly Spelt, with a bit of flour, the pancakes held a perfectly round shape and fluffed up nicely. I cut up a peach for topping, and put some butter, honey, and applesauce on the table as well.

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Here is the recipe:

2 C Spelt flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 fresh chicken eggs (or just one if your chickens lay large eggs)
1 1/2 C buttermilk
3 T butter, melted
1 T honey

In a large bowl, combine spelt, wheat, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, and butter. Add wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Mix until moist. Add honey and mix as well. Cook 1/4 C at a time on a hot skillet. Top as desired, like this little girl is doing.

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Skillet Peach Cobbler

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It’s peach time! I love August for this one reason. To celebrate, I bought a huge box, and we’ve been eating peaches everyday. A new favorite breakfast side of mine are these cooked peaches. They’re very quick to cook up, and don’t have any kind of sweetener added.
4 Peaches
1/4 C Butter
1/2 t vanilla
1 T ground flax
1 T coconut flour
1. Remove the skins from the peaches. The easiest way is to place the peaches in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Then drain the water off, and rinse with cold water. The skins will slip right off.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a frying pan. Slice the peaches and add them to the butter. Cook the peaches for about five minutes.
3. Add the vanilla, flax, and coconut flour. Stir to incorporate with the butter and peach juice. This will form a soft crust around the peaches.

Healthy No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Well, healthier than these. I switched the graham crackers, which usually have high fructose corn syrup in them, for oatmeal and flax, which a full of fiber, iron, and omega-3s. Then I switched the powdered sugar for much less honey. These could easily be made into lactation cookies just by adding some brewer’s yeast.

Healthy No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

  • 1 C Oatmeal, ground
  • 1 C Flax, ground
  • 1 C Butter, melted
  • ¾ C Honey or less
  • 1 C Peanut Butter
  • 1 ½ C Dark Chocolate Chips or Carob Chips
  • 4 T Peanut Butter

Instructions

  1. Grind your oatmeal and flax in a food processor.
  2. Combine oatmeal, flax, butter, honey and peanut butter in a large bowl.
  3. Mix with a spoon.
  4. Spread into a 9X13 pan.
  5. Melt Chips and Peanut Butter in a microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
  6. Pour over top of peanut butter mixture.
  7. Refrigerate for one hour.
http://kstuff.net/healthy-no-bake-peanut-butter-bars/

 

If you don’t have flax, use another cup of oatmeal. This recipe is super flexible, so experiment away!

You can find ground flax and carob chips in the bulk section at Winco or at any health food store.

This is what the peanut butter and dark chocolate topping looks like while you're mixing it.