REALLY AWESOME AND HEALTHY PECAN PIE
Posted: November 18, 2011 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a commentThis gluten free pecan pie has no sugar, but is really sweet, a great alternative to that gooey sticky bad for you southern pecan pie we grew up on.
Pie Shell;
1 cup butter
1-3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1-3/4 cups rice flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1-1/2 teaspoons GF baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon GF vanilla
Cream together butter, eggs and sugar in food processor. Add remaining dry ingredients. Mix well, and spread about 1/4 inch deep on bottom and sides of your pie pan. A deep dish pie pan is best, because this crust takes a little more room than the regular kinds of piecrusts. You will get at least 2 large 1-crust pies out of this.
Bake in 350 degree oven until golden brown. Use a pie chain to keep the crust from puffing up.
Filling;
3/4 cup dried apricots
3/4 cup pitted dates
2 cups apple juice
2 T. agar agar flakes
pinch of salt
1 1/2 T. kuzu dissolved in 1/4 cup cold apple juice
1 t. vanilla
2 cups roasted pecans
Combine dried fruits with juice, agar and salt in saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add kuzu and stir until clear. Puree fruit mix in food processor and then add pecans and buzz lightly until pecans are in pieces but chunky. Do not over blend.
Allow to cool. You may decorate top of pie with additional roasted pecans if desired.
Coconut Apple Crisp
Posted: November 7, 2011 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a comment
photo at: Kate in the Kitchen
The topping is browned separately and the apples are cooked stove-top in this recipe. The two are then combined and finished off in the oven.
Apple Filling
2 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 5 medium)
2 pounds McIntosh apples (about 4 medium)
1/4 cup Demarara sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup coconut cream or buy canned coconut milk, use just the creamy part, after letting the can settle.
Streusel Topping
1 cup Rice flour
1/4 cups Tapioca flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoon cornmeal
7 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
1 1/3 cup grated coconut
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. For the apple filling: Peel, quarter, and core apples; slice each quarter crosswise into pieces 1/4-inch thick. Toss apples, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl to combine. Heat butter in large Dutch oven over high heat until foaming subsides; add apples and toss to coat. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until apples are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in raisins; cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until Granny Smith apple slices are tender and McIntosh apple slices are softened and beginning to break down, about 5 minutes longer.
3. Set large colander over large bowl; transfer cooked apples to colander. Shake colander and toss apples to drain off as much juice as possible. Bring drained juice and coconut cream to boil in now-empty Dutch oven over high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and wooden spoon leaves trail in mixture, about 5 minutes. Transfer apples to 8-inch square baking dish; pour reduced juice mixture over and smooth with rubber spatula.
4. For the streusel topping: Combine flour, sugars, and cornmeal in medium bowl; drizzle with melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms many large chunks with pea-sized pieces mixed throughout. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spread streusel in even layer on baking sheet. Bake streusel until golden brown, about 5 minutes; cool baking sheet with streusel on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle streusel evenly over pie filling. Set pie plate on now-empty baking sheet and bake until streusel topping is deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack and serve.
Borsari Seasoned Salt
Posted: November 4, 2011 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a commentI generally do not use spice blends, I prefer seasoning with individual spices as I go…but a nutrition client recently gave me seasoned salt she said I just had to try. I poured some of it into another container, added some powdered seaweed for nutrition and use it liberally on eggs, meats and my favorite…in chicken stock to drink or use as soup.m
She was right! Check out these blends at http://www.borsarifoods.com/
Mac and Cheese- Dairy and Wheat-free and AWESOME!
Posted: August 18, 2011 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a commentTastes Just Like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese- Gluten and Lactose Free
16 ounces rice macaroni or penne
2 cup blanched almonds
1 small jar of pimentos, use juice and pimentos, do NOT drain.
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes, NOT powder
salt and pepper to taste
Place almonds in clean, dry blender. Blend to a very fine powder, stopping a few times and using a butter knife to go under the blades and mix.
Barely cover with water and blend very well, adding in water in very small amounts just to get the mixture to a very smooth consistency. Again, go under the blades with a butter knife and make sure it is blended very smooth.
Then add enough water and blend…doing so slowly until your mixture is as thick as heavy cream.
Add all other ingredients and blend well. Add to cooked pasta and reheat in oven until hot and just getting bubbly. You can add bread crumbs on top if you like.
Serves 4
Doctors group says hot dogs as dangerous as cigarettes
Posted: August 1, 2011 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, Going Green; How and Why..., In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a comment
Physicians For responsible Medicine says hot dogs are as bad for you as cigarettes. Do I agree with this? Yes and no…
Regular cheap such as Oscar- Meyer are definitely bad for you; who knows what meat it is, the additives, the corn fed meat..all bad.
But grass fed beef or bison hot dogs, or Organic brands are wonderful for you. Plenty of organic brands even made uncured hot dogs. They are as healthy as any other protein.
Another thing to be aware of is that Physicians For Responsible Medicine stance of nutrition is that a vegan diet is healthiest for humans, which is simply not true. Se my article here- Vegetarian Diets are NOT Healthy for Humans.
The article is below and while they do go on to say that moderation is the key that we should eat less hot dogs. Again, it depends on which hot dog one is talking about. And I do agree that processed meats should be only a small, if any, part of our diet.
But meat and fats are the healthiest part of pour diet and most people eat drastically too little of them.
I don’t listen to much that the Physicians For responsible Medicine has to say any more because of their belief that meat is unhealthy. Notice I say belief, because studies, and science…does not support their position.
My advise? Buy organic Grass fed bison or beef hot dogs, use healthy Ezekiel (gluten free) buns, load it up with organic relish, onions and condiments of choice and enjoy!
The article;
INDIANAPOLIS — Instead of grouping hot dogs with Mom and apple pie, a national medical group wants you to consider them as bad for your health as cigarettes.
Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images
Just one 50-gram serving of processed meat — about the amount in one hot dog — a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent, the study found.
Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images
Just one 50-gram serving of processed meat — about the amount in one hot dog — a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent, the study found
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes preventive medicine and a vegan diet, unveiled a billboard Monday near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the advisory: "Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health."
The billboard features a picture of hot dogs in a cigarette pack inscribed with skull and crossbones. It aims to increase awareness of a link between colorectal cancer and hot dogs.
Hot dogs, like cigarettes, should come with a "warning label that helps racing fans and other consumers understand the health risk," said Susan Levin, the committee’s nutrition education director.
Other health experts disagree.
Although hot dogs are certainly not health food, neither are they toxic, if consumed in moderation, they say.
"It is not necessary to eliminate consumption of red or processed meat; rather the message is that these foods should not be the mainstay of your diet," American Cancer Society guidelines state.
About twice a month, Kimberly Hunt indulges. She harbors no illusions that hot dogs are good for her, but she’s not worried about the risks.
"Not any more than any other processed foods that we eat," said Hunt, as she finished off lunch in downtown Indianapolis. "There’s a lot of things that are going to cause cancer. Are hot dogs on the top of my list? No."
Hot dogs are low in nutritional value, said Dr. Jesse Spear, an internal medicine physician with St. Vincent Medical Group in Fishers, Ind. They’re high in salt, which can lead to hypertension and heart disease.
Should we avoid them at all costs?
That’s not what Spear tells patients. Instead, he advises them to eat a generally healthy diet — more fruits and vegetables, less processed meats.
"I don’t personally tell people never to eat hot dogs, because I guess I’m just realistic enough to know that people will still consume them to some degree," he said.
But there’s something about a car race that encourages hot dog consumption. Last year, more than 1.1 million hot dogs were sold during the Indianapolis 500.
So this year, the Physicians Committee decided to target another Speedway event, Sunday’s Brickyard 400, with its $2,750 billboard.
The strong warning is needed to make people think twice about eating hot dogs and all processed meats, Levin said. That includes deli meats, ham, sausage, bacon and pepperoni.
"A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave," said Levin, a registered dietitian. "People think feeding their kids these foods (is) safe, but (it’s) not."
The research linking colorectal cancer and processed meat is convincing, says a 2007 report by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research.
Just one 50-gram serving of processed meat — about the amount in one hot dog — a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent, the study found.
George Hanlin has his consumption down to one or two a month, as part of a plan to eat healthier. Monday, he contemplated the data linking hot dogs to health risks.
"Will it keep me from never eating hot dogs? No," Hanlin said. "But there’s no question I will try to limit it a lot more."
Baskets for Kitchen Recycling
Posted: July 12, 2011 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's, Non-Toxic Choices Leave a commentI found a great idea for setting up a recycling system for the kitchen…
As you know, I do not use or buy plastic, I compost the little trash I generate; all food scraps, paper. The little plastic that I do generate I recycle or re-use. But I hadn’t found a great system..until now. And they look gorgeous!
Check out all the options here– Waste Not Basket
How eating Organic and Healthy Saves You Money
Posted: July 12, 2011 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, Gardening, In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's, Non-Toxic Choices Leave a comment
People tell me all the time that they cannot afford to eat organic. My feeling is that no one can afford NOT TO!
It is true that in the past organic food was much more expensive than the other alternatives. However the demand for these foods and products are so high now that the cost is often the same or lower! Last week organic strawberries at Publix were cheaper than the regular ones!
Most people buy a lot of prepared foods, frozen foods, convenience foods. The cost of these foods is absurd, you are paying for other people to do the work for you. I put my food dollars toward high quality food sand o the labor myself. I make everything from scratch (yogurt, spice mixes, bone broths, desserts, tortillas. etc.) and everything I eat is organic. I grow a lot of my own green leafy vegetables in sub-irrigated containers I built out of 5 gallon buckets.
I know you must be says..yeah, she must stay home and do that full time. I do not. I work a 50 hour a week job, run a small business, maintain a blog, write prolifically. These things do not take a lot of time. Making the grow buckets 2 years ago did, Learning how to grow food did. Growing in buckets means way less watering, my water bill is very low. I do almost no weeding. I never buy many herbs, I never buy green veggies, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers. I make my own skin cleaner (it the best I have ever used and costs me about 20 bucks a year).
Bust eating organically also means better health. Eating whole food means great health. I eat only fat, meat, veggies and fruit. Nothing that needs a label to tell me what is in it. I don’t eat veggie based meals (too many carbs), I don’t eat bean based meals (not healthy).
I eat wonderful decadent grass fed meat or organic meat every meal. I have two to three eggs cooked in butter or coconut oil every morning with turkey bacon or skinless chicken sausage, blueberries or fruit in season, homemade coconut milk yogurt. A 700 calorie breakfast that is going to keep me going with very high energy for 5 or 6 hours. Last night I had a 9 ounce sirloin steak, a small sweet potato with 1 Tablespoon of butter, Swiss chard cooked with coconut oil, garlic and caramelized onions. 2 ounces of dark chocolate and 1/2 a mango later in the evening, a great lunch during the day…What more could a person ask for??
My food cost is about $50.00 a week. See my grocery list and plan for the week here.
Buy my Cookbook or Book on Optimum Nutrition here…or go to my blog and explore…
A Sustainable Kitchen
Posted: June 1, 2011 Filed under: Going Green; How and Why..., In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's, Non-Toxic Choices 1 CommentOver at Apartment Therapy yesterday I was reading about sustainable kitchens. Their focus was on building the kitchen…
As I am moving to a new house with a kitchen half the size of the one I’m in now it set me to thinking about that subject. Except that what I think of when I think of sustainable kitchens is how to set up a kitchen that supports a sustainable lifestyle.
The house I live in now is set up to have a very very low carbon footprint; I grow most of my veggies and use a sawdust toilet that supports me practicing high heat composting. This allows me to have soil that is deeply rich in nutrients and microbes to grow in food in my grow buckets. It’s a closed system; I do not have to buy fertilizer’s as my yard waste, kitchen scraps and all paper can be composted. Composting this way gives me useable soil in a year without ever having to turn or stir the compost. This is huge as I only weigh 109 pounds and cannot turn large amounts of compost effectively. And I refuse to buy anything plastic so getting a tumbler is out.
I make all my food from scratch; coconut milk yogurt, Kombucha tea, bone stocks, juicing, rendering fats, canning or freezing vegetables… I need room and equipment but am now going to do all that in a kitchen half the size.
Let’s look at how I do this;
· I use a Hamilton Beach slow cooker with 3 stoneware bowls to make my coconut milk yogurt and to slow cook chickens or roasts.
· I use a 32 year old Champion Juicer that is a continuous feed juicer, will make nut butters, shaved ice and will homogenize and great sorbets.
· I use a stainless steel canister to put food scraps in.
· I have a six foot prep table that I had in my restaurant with a cutting board.
· I have a hand coffee grinder from Sweet Maria’s that rocks!
Top, left to right; mason jars for caning and storing food (with laundry soap made from Soap Nuts, Ibriki to make Turkish coffee, my compost bin, ceramic coffee filter holder.
Second row; plastic free travel mug from, coffee grinder from Sweet Maria’s, Wrap n Mat instead of plastic bags, sawdust toilet, hemp coffee filters.
Third row; clothesline, Champion Juicer, Williams Sonoma dish cloths and cup towels, Soapnuts
Last row; indoor drying rack,
I recently commented to someone that I did not use a dryer. She was very puzzled and asked how I dried clothes without one! Yeah, she was young, about 22 or so…but was truly baffled! LOL!
All it takes is planning. Many people comment to me that I must spend an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen…but I really don’t. It takes 20 minutes to put on a batch of yogurt and it;’s done in 12 hours. It takes 45 minutes to get beef stock simmering, then it’s done in 72 hours without me touching it. The next day I render the fat and freeze stocks that will last me all month. After I roast a chicken and remove meat from the bones I put it in the slow cooker for 12 hours and I have stock that supplies me with all the iron and calcium I need to stay in perfect health!
I only take my trash can to the curb every third week because that all the trash my household generates..everything else is composted (bones, fats…all can be high-heat composted).
I make my own skin cleaners, toners, flower water and soaps but only do so a few times a year. Recipes are on my blog under skin care.
I use no paper products if I can help it; dish cloths and rags for the kitchen, baby wash cloths for the bathroom that get laundered, recycled toilet paper for guests (see No-Impact Man’s Blog entry on this).
Remember you do not have to dive in all at once…do the normal things people do nowadays…use CF bulbs, use less water…start here and take one one new sustainable choice a week.. It’s just habits and you will get use to them…
You’ll lower your bills as well as your carbon footprint!
Dutch Apple Pie with Gluten Free Topping..
Posted: June 1, 2011 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a commentI’ve been working on this recipe a few years..and it’s as good as I have ever had..gluten free or not..
Apples;
8 apples of your choice, I like red delicious. Core and slice them, remove the peels from half of them.
1/4 cup sugar, I like Demarara sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. salt
2 T. butter
1/2 cup raisins (or blueberries or raspberries)
1/3 cup coconut cream
Sauté the sliced apples in butter, covered, on medium-low until softened and almost clear looking. Halfway through cooking add sugar. Drain, reserving liquid.
Melt butter in saucepan. Place apples back in saucepan. Add sugar, raisins, spices, cook 5 minutes. Add coconut cream, warm until it is all melted in apples.
Streusel;
1 cup almonds, chopped coarsly
3/4 cup rice flour
1/3 cup Demarara sugar
3 T. corn meal
7 T butter
Mix with a wooden spoon until the dough is in pea size pieces. Bake on a cookie sheet on parchment paper in a 300 degree oven. Stir often because the outside browns quickly, but do not break up the pieces.
Slide off of the paper onto the apples in a pie dish. Bake until just brown on top.
100% Mashed Potatoes??? NOT!
Posted: February 13, 2011 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's, Non-Toxic Choices Leave a commentFebruary 13th, 2011
From; 
Fooducate
Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes? The smooth and creamy texture of hot potatoes mixed with salt and some butter. Unfortunately, this side dish requires some preparation, and many people have resorted to industrial solutions.
Here is an example of a relatively new product from Betty Crocker, “Loaded Mashed” promising:
100% mashed potatoes. Seasoned with naturally flavored bacon, cheese, chives and sour cream.
Sounds nice, until we took a look at the ingredient list…What you need to know:
Here is the list of “Loaded Mashed”’s 55(!) ingredients:
Potatoes (Dried), Salt, Maltodextrin, Imitation Bacon Bit (Vital Wheat Gluten, Salt Maltodextrin, Rendered Bacon Fat Colored with Caramel Color and Red 40 Lake, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar, Cooked Bacon [Cured with Water, Salt Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite, May Contain Smoke Flavors, Sugar, Dextrose, Brown Sugar, Sodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Flavoring], Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Sulfiting Agents), Sugar, Onion (Dried), Mono and Diglycerides, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Whey, Natural Flavor, Buttermilk, Cheddar Cheese (Dried) (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt Enzymes), Enzyme Modified Milk, Chives (Dried), Parmesan Cheese (Dried) (Milk Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Sour Cream (Dried) (Cream, Skim Milk, Cultures), Modified Corn Starch, Silicon Dioxide (Anticaking Agent), Rendered Bacon Fat, Bacon (Cured with Water, Salt Sugar, Sodium Nitrite, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Phosphate, Natural Smoke Flavor), Ricotta Cheese (Dried) (Whey, Milkfat, Lactic Acid, Salt), Lactic Acid.
So we’ve got a heavily processed product here, with some ingredients that we’ve highlighted:
Red 40 – a controversial artificial color that requires a warning label in the UK. It can cause hyperactivity in kids. MSG, Sodium Nitrite, and last but not least, trans-fat in the partially hydrogenated oils.
Why would anybody want to do this to themselves and their family?
Bottom line – “real” mashed potatoes are made from potatoes at home. They don’t come in a box.
What to do at the supermarket:
Why not make the real thing? Buy potatoes, sour cream, butter, milk, bacon, and chives. Or buy potatoes, olive oil, yogurt, and chives. Look up an online recipe, and get in the kitchen. A little effort will take your meal to a whole other level.
Meal Delivery Service by Millie Barnes 
