Today’s dish was inspired by my son’s love of popcorn. Okay, okay, it doesn’t taste anything like popcorn. But, it’s salty and topped with nutritional yeast and tastes yummy. And, that’s probably about as close as I’m going to get.

Sometimes, you just have to be happy with what you can eat.

And, if I close my eyes and pretend, it’s almost like eating popcorn. Well, if popcorn were served on spinach….

A bowl full of cauliflower and chick peas.

Dry “Fried” Cauliflower and Chick Peas

250 g. cauliflower, broken into bite-size pieces (about 1/2 a small head)
1/2 cup drained and rinsed canned chick peas
pinch of salt
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. nutritional yeast
85 g. (2 cups) baby spinach

Heat a dry skillet over high heat. Add the cauliflower, chick peas, and salt. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the cauliflower has browned bits and is just beginning to soften. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and toss. Put the baby spinach on a plate. Pile the cauliflower/chick pea mixture onto the spinach and top with nutritional yeast.

Serves 1 hungry mama.

Nutritional Info

Want to find more good-for-you, vegan recipes? Check out Wellness Weekends.

My post is all about how my kitchen has changed over time, and my favorite features.

Here’s a sneak peek at what was, before the kitchen remodel. To see what it looks like now, head on over to Celiacs in the House!

1997 – The Kitchen That Was

The problem is, I don’t generally measure anything when I cook. I just throw things together, adjusting here, balancing there, until I get a flavor that I like.

But, I recently decided to start tracking all my calories for a while.  And, that means measuring everything. Bad news for me. Good news for you. Because now I can share with you all the non-baked foods I eat. Well, at least the decent ones. Not every experiment is a winner, you know.

So, not only can you look forward to more savory recipes, I’ll even share some full day accounts of everything I eat (if you are interested in that).

One thing that I’m learning, and learning quickly – veggie based meals are fairly low calorie. Tonight’s soup recipe is a case in point. The recipe makes 3 1/2 cups. I ate 1 1/2 cups, for a whopping grand total of 207 calories. Good thing I ate some dessert, too, eh?

Green Curry Cauliflower Soup with Peas and Cilantro

Green Curry Cauliflower Soup

Serving size: 1 cup. Total Servings: 3.5
1 T. (14 g) coconut oil
1 small onion, chopped (118 g)
1 T. green curry paste (Maesri & Taste of Thai are good brands for vegan curry pastes)
4 cups (350 g) chopped cauliflower
1.5 cups water
1 vegan no-salt bouillon cube
1/2 t. sea salt
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

In a 2 quart kettle, sauté the onions in the coconut oil until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the curry paste and stir until fragrant. Add the cauliflower, water, bouillon cube, and salt. Bring to a boil. Boil 5-10 minutes until cauliflower is just soft enough to blend. (I don’t like overcooked cauliflower, so I tend to go shorter on the cook time and live with a few more chunks.) Using an immersion blender, blend the cauliflower mixture until you have a fairly smooth puree. Add the coconut milk and frozen peas. Stir until peas are heated through. Remove from heat and add the cilantro. Garnish with additional cilantro and serve.

Nutrition Information

For more recipes to support your wellness lifestyle, check out Ricki’s Wellness Weekends.

Peanut Buddy Bars.

Peanut butter bar, slathered in chocolate. Oh my.

Oh yes, I said it.

And, we loved them.

I only made minor tweaks, so these aren’t vegan. I was trying to be true to the original recipe. So, I swapped out the flours and used a slightly smaller amount of palm sugar. But, otherwise, I stuck pretty close to the original. And, they were yummy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Goodness

Peanut Buddy Bars

6 T (72 g) organic palm shortening
1 cup (256 g) natural peanut butter
1 cup palm sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 cup (60 g) peanut flour (honestly I’m pretty sure you could leave this out)
1/4 cup (28 g) arrowroot starch
1 cup (120 g) almond meal
1 t. psyllium powder
1/4 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (divided)

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, cream the palm sugar until fluffy. Add the peanut butter and beat well. Add the sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each one. Add everything but the chocolate chips and mix well. Stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Bake for 25 minutes, until edges are golden. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Spread the melted chocolate evenly across top of bars. Allow to cool completely.

Want to see what other surprises were in store for Secret Recipe Club members this month? Check out the blog hop:

When I was pregnant, I developed gestational diabetes. So I was told to exercise daily and drastically reduce my sugar intake. I managed it, and lost 40 lbs in the process. (I was overweight to begin with so I thought this was great!) After the baby was born, I was too tired to exercise or bake treats using alternative sugars – and my sugar cravings came back with a vengence so I put all the excess weight back on (so I’m now back to my original weight and obese again). Diabetes runs in my family and I’m worried about (and too scared to find out if) I have developed diabetes. I need to understand what’s going on emotionally for me now about craving sugary foods; (I’ve proved that I can curb it in the past when it was important to do so, so why can’t I curb it now?)

I hope I win a free place on the course, as I can’t afford to pay for it right now, while I’m not working.

Santou, I’ll be contacting you shortly to help you get set up for your free spot in Sweet Victory! For everyone else, there’s still time to sign up. 

What a story Santou shared! And the rest of your stories, too…. Wow. Just wow. Thank you so much to each and every one of you that responded to my Sweet Victory Giveaway. I wish I could give you all a free entry. I really do. Your stories of sugar’s hold on your lives touched me. But, since I can’t give you all a spot in the course, I can give you one of my stories, and a recipe.

See, I’ve been doing this refined sugar-free thing for years. I’m fairly experienced at it. I think I know what I’m doing. But, you know what? Today I sugar-crashed. Yep. Full blown crash – shaking and sweating and light-headed.

And, I knew exactly what was happening.

You see, I broke one of the cardinal rules of preventing a high-low blood sugar swing. It’s just one of several rules that Andrea and Ricki will teach you if you sign up for the Sweet Victory course. And, I have permission to share it with you:

Always eat fat and protein at every meal.

Normally, this isn’t much of a struggle for me. I mean, come on. Fat tastes good, right? Protein usually comes in a pretty yummy package, too. So what happened today? Well, I packed a nice healthy smoothie for lunch – filled with fruit and greens and protein and good fats.

And then I promptly forgot it in my backpack.

Oops.

So when lunch time rolled around, I went in search of something to fill my belly. I stepped out of my office door and into a beautiful, sunshine-filled 80° day. In March. In Wisconsin. These are rare. We relish them.

So, I walked to the smoothie shop and got a fruit and veggie smoothie to enjoy while basking in all the glory of the day.

Except there was no fat. And no protein.

Oops.

Two hours later, I hopped on my bike, rode home, dropped my bike, and walked to my son’s school to pick him up. And, that’s when I sugar-crashed. Ew.

So, I came home, and after filling my face with some raisins (fast sugar) and nuts (trying to even things out with some fat and protein), I made some tasty little snack balls – the kind of thing I SHOULD have eaten with my smoothie to stave off the sugar crash.

Cardamom Cherry Snack Balls

Now, I’ll warn you. These are not very sweet. But, they’re plenty sweet for me, a girl with a few years of this sugar-free thing under her belt. And, they’ll be plenty sweet for you, too – after you get through YOUR sugar detox.

Cardamom Cherry Snack Balls

1/3 cup raw walnuts
1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
2 T. melted coconut butter
1/8 t. vanilla
1/8 t. ground cardamom
1/4 t. cinnamon
1 T. yacon powder (for sweeter, use 1 T. powdered palm sugar) *
scant 1/3 cup dried sweet cherries

Place all ingredients except cherries in the bowl of a food processor. Process until mixture clumps together. Add cherries and pulse to dice and mix. Form into small balls. Refrigerate.

*Yacon is a Central and South American tuber, with a pleasantly mild sweetness that comes mostly from inulin – a form of fiber. You’ll learn more about inulin and other complex sugars in the Sweet Victory course.

For more Slightly Indulgent Recipes, check out Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.

 I always look up at least 3-4 recipes for the given item & then I “tweak” it and make it my own!

Every.single.time.

I don’t think it is humanly possible for me to FOLLOW a recipe to the letter.

Just.doesn’t.happen.here.

Oh, how I can relate, Denise!

So, I’m sure she won’t mind that I’m tweaking one of her recipes this month. Denise uses a lot of dairy products in her recipes. In fact, her blog reads a lot like mine would have read had I started blogging before I went dairy-free. You know, back when sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, and cheese were all considered daily staples in my house.

That’s not to say that every recipe she has has dairy. I found these amazing sounding black beans. They’re on my to-try list.

And, had I wanted to make a dessert (seriously, when do I NOT want to make a dessert) I would have jumped on these flourless brownie cookies.

But, I’ve been mulling over the grain-free thing, and feeling like perhaps I need to try to incorporate some grains back into my life – mostly because I’m feeling very heavy and weighed down with the massive quantities of nuts in my life right now. I’ve found myself eating way too many of those in an attempt to compensate for the complete lack of grains.  I recently did a nutrition calculation on my favorite breakfast (banana, peanuts, peanut butter, raisins and almond milk). Holy moly, I had no idea how many calories I was consuming at breakfast. Take a look at these numbers:

Nutrition Data for a Peanut Butter Banana Bowl

Geez, Louise. That’s a lot of calories and sodium for breakfast. You know how much I love my breakfast bowls, but that’s just out of hand. Time to try something new.

So, I landed on her yummy breakfast recipe. Filled with brown rice, low sugar berries, and just a few nuts, it seemed the perfect way to incorporate a “safe” whole grain back into my diet – except for that dastardly yogurt. So, I left it out. Instead, I made a “yogurt-like” concoction by blending the berries with a big handful of spinach and a little bit of almond milk (or kombucha, if you have it, to mimic some of the happy, healthy probiotic beasties of yogurt). And, I skipped the raisins and maple syrup. I’m emphasizing low sugar foods these days.

Tweaking. It’s what we do. Right, Denise?

Here are the new and improved breakfast nutrition stats. You might notice that a large percentage of calories still come from fats. I don’t have a problem with that. I’m not afraid of good fats, like those found in nuts and coconut.

Nutrition Data for Brown Rice Bowl

I think that even leaves room for a breakfast cookie once in a while. Don’t you?

So how did the great grain experiment go? Well, sadly, though I found this breakfast to be satisfying, delicious and healthy, my stomach was not pleased. *sigh*

But, if you can eat grains regularly, I urge you to give it a go!

Yummy Breakfast Bowl

Yummy Rice Bowl Breakfast

1/2 cup berries or unsweetened cherries (nutrition stats done with blueberries)
1 large handful (1 ounce) spinach
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or kombucha
2 T. chopped nuts (nutrition stats done with pecans)
2 t. finely shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup cooked brown rice, cooled (Be sure to check Denise’s blog for rice cooking instructions)

In a small blender (I use my fake Magic Bullet style blender) puree the berries, spinach and almond milk. Pour into a bowl. Top with rice, coconut and nuts.

To see the rest of this month’s Secret Recipe Club submissions, visit the blog hop:

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks so much for participating!

Giveaways are a common occurrence in the gluten-free blogger world. When I first started on this path, the very first giveaway I won was for a copy of Ricki Heller’s Sweet Freedom. At the time, I was already familiar with many natural sweeteners – honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, sorghum syrup. But, Ricki introduced me to a whole bunch more – coconut nectar, palm sugar, stevia, and yacon syrup. I realized I had much to learn about eating a refined sugar-free diet!

I quickly fell in love with Ricki’s blog – Diet, Dessert, And Dogs, and have adopted many of her techniques for limiting the sugar in my diet without compromising taste.

And, now you have an opportunity to learn from Ricki and her friend and co-teacher, Andrea Nakayama. Andrea is a functional nutritionist from Portland, who, like many of us, took a family health crisis as an opportunity to learn all she could about nutrition.  Her website -  Replenish PDX – lays out her personal nutrition philosophy. A quote I love:

I believe that the body yearns to heal itself. My mission is to open the channels to welcome this nourishment and revitalization.

And, now Ricki and Andrea have teamed up to present an all new course, Sweet Victory. Sweet Victory is a 2 week course, starting March 24th, that takes an in-depth look at sugar cravings and what to do about them from a physiological as well as emotional standpoint. It begins with a kickoff teleseminar call the first day with Ricki and Andrea introducing the course materials and providing their perspectives and information on sugar addiction and kicking the habit. Then there are 2 weeks of a sugar cleanse including menus, recipes, charts, some notes from the class, and full 24/7 support via a discussion forum (participants can post any time and both Andrea and Ricki are on the board 2-3 times a day to answer questions and provide feedback).  The final Saturday of the course there’s another call with both teachers for about an hour.  Both calls are recorded so participants can listen in later if they missed it, or just listen again. Included in the materials is an earlier home study course that Andrea created called Sweet Tooth Bitter Truth. That one outlines all the different types of sugars and how they affect your body.

And the recipes – oh boy, the recipes!

I’ve had a sneak peek at the recipes, and believe me, these are recipes you want! Delicious, wholesome, whole food recipes that will have you forgetting that you’re on a cleanse. For example, you’ll get the recipe for this amazing, grain-free granola. (Hint, there are veggies in there!)

Grain Free Veggie Granola, coming at ya

And, lest you think you’ll be deprived of treats, many of my cookie and dessert recipes would fit right in on this sugar cleanse. (There’s a reason Ricki asked me to host this giveaway. )

The course is valued at $227 (though you can sign up until Saturday, March 17th for just $197). But, one of my readers will get the course for free. That’s right! A 2-week jump start to better health, all for free. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me how sugar affects your life.

The contest is open until midnight, Monday March 19th. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, March 20th.

Good luck!

Want to improve your odds? Head on over to Hallie’s Blog,  Daily Bites – or Cara’s Blog, Cara’s Cravings – for another chance to win.

That’s what my son told me when we talked about what he wanted for his birthday. I couldn’t be more proud of him for caring so much about his friend, and wanting her to feel included. Pretty cool for an almost 9-year old.

See, the kiddo isn’t the only kid in his class with special food needs. His classroom is gluten-free, nut-free, legume-free, corn-free, shellfish-free, soy-free and dairy-free. Whew.

Generally speaking, no home-baked goods are allowed in the classroom.

But, after a few playground chats and back and forth emails with FiFi’s mom, we settled on a list of ingredients that were safe for both FiFi and the kiddo.

The primary “flour” in this recipe is pumpkin seed flour. I’d already done some baking with sunflower seed flour. And, I’d been mulling over the idea of pumpkin seed flour when Maggie of She Let Them Eat Cake posted some delicious-looking pumpkin seed flour cookies. That was just the push I needed to get out the grinder and make a trip to Trader Joe’s for some raw pepitas.

We’re on our third batch of these cookies in a week.

I think they’re keepers.

Nut-free, vegan, grain-free Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies

Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Flour Cookies

1/3 cup maple syrup
1 t. psyllium powder (available at most pharmacies or on Amazon)
6 T. (72 g) organic palm shortening
1 t. vanilla
1.5 cups (180 g) pumpkin seeds, ground in a coffee grinder until floury
6 T. (30 g) cocoa
1/4 cup (28 g) arrowroot starch
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (for soy-free, use Enjoy Life)

Preheat oven to 350°. In a measuring cup, mix the maple syrup and psyllium powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the palm shortening until light and fluffy. Add the maple syrup and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add everything but the chocolate chips and mix until dough comes together. (This will take a minute or two. Be patient.) Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes, until firm, but not crispy.

For more recipes using good for you ingredients, check out Wellness Weekends.

But, of course, you need to have biscuits with soup, right? Well, in my house, you do.

My dad always called baking powder biscuits “gun powder biscuits.” I know not why. But, in an homage to him, I continue the tradition.

Of course, when he made them, they were often made with Bisquick.

We won’t go there.

Nope, my biscuits are not only vegan, they’re grain-free.

And they pass the kiddo test. Oh yes they do.

grain-free, vegan baking powder biscuit

Grain-free, Vegan “Gun Powder” Biscuits

3/4 cup almond milk
1 t. psyllium powder
3/4 cup (90 g) fine ground garbanzo bean flour
1 cup (120 g) almond meal
1/4 cup (28 g) arrowroot starch
2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1/4 cup (48 g) shortening

Preheat the oven to 450°. In a measuring cup, mix the almond milk and psyllium powder. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the almond milk and mix with a fork or spoon until mixture comes together. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until nicely browned.

Want to find more good-for-you vegan vittles perfect for the weekend? Check out Wellness Weekends.

This month I was assigned to Cairns Manor, a blog filled with beautiful photography and penned by a lovely woman named Jo. As usual, Jo doesn’t share all my food intolerances or preferences. But, I was still able to find a recipe or two that intrigued me. Like this one for chocolate pumpkin cheesecake bars. Does that not sound fabulous? Sadly, major recipe reconstruction would be required to make that safe for me. Or croissants? I dream of making those gluten and dairy free.

It wasn’t all about pressing my nose to the glass of the forbidden candy store, though. I love the idea of using orange in this broccoli stir fry. I always forget about incorporating orange into my savory dishes.

But, the one dish that intrigued me the most, and required the least modifications for my wacky diet, was her chocolate bananas foster ice cream. Banana soft serve is a ritual in my house. The kiddo preaches the gospel of banana soft serve to all his friends, and has created quite a few converts. So, a twist on banana soft serve? Yes, please.

The kiddo and I whipped this up last weekend. We made only 3 minor modifications – we used almond milk instead of regular milk, palm sugar instead of white sugar, and dumped the lemon juice for a splash of rum. The result? A creamy, caramely, not too sweet twist on a classic. I don’t think it will ever replace straight up banana soft serve in our hearts, but it’s a great one to add to the repertoire. And the kiddo says next time we have to try it with peanut butter instead of chocolate.

I like the way the kiddo thinks.

Be sure to check out Jo’s step-by-step photos.

Isn't all ice cream better topped with hot fudge and chocolate chips?

Chocolate Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Adapted from Cairns Manor to be dairy-free, grain-free, & vegan.

3 medium bananas, peeled
3 tablespoons palm sugar
1 1/2 cups almond milk
2 tablespoons  cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 T. rum
1/4 tsp sea salt

Break up bananas into 1/2″ pieces. Toss in a bowl with the palm sugar until the sugar starts to melt and fully coats the banana Place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake 400° F for 30-40 minutes, stirring once, until bananas are browned and cooked through.

Remove from oven, and combine in your blender with remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth, then cool for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Once the base is cool, pour into ice cream machine and process according to machine’s instructions.

Once frozen, you can either eat the ice cream soft serve or remove ice cream into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours before serving.

Check out all the rest of the Secret Recipe Club recipes for February’s Group C: