Monthly Archives: November 2012

Nearly perfect pumpkin pie

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Perfect pumpkin pie would be the regular kind made with lots of sugar and nestled in a flaky crust. In my world, pumpkin pie is crustless and made with Stevia. I made two pies this morning for my family’s Thanksgiving celebration, and this evening was the big taste test. They actually turned out okay! I was pleasantly surprised with the experiment, so here’s the recipe: Nearly Perfect Pumpkin Pie 1 regular can pumpkin 1/2 tsp. salt 1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 tsp. cloves 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1 can evaporated milk (without sugar) 2 eggs 1-1/2 tsp. clear Continue Reading →

Killer Cornbread

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This is my Killer Chili companion for a cold, wintery day. I used a Betty Crocker recipe and modified it to be gluten-free and sugar-free. Works pretty well! By the way, any Betty Crocker recipe I use that calls for sugar, I automatically cut the sugar amount in half. I swear, that woman must have been a sugar-holic! The excessive number of eggs and the extra tablespoon of baking powder are to lighten up the heaviness of the buckwheat flour. If you use regular flour, it’s one egg and one tablespoon of baking powder. You shouldn’t be able to taste Continue Reading →

Killer Chili

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This is a great time of year to have chili! This is the recipe I’ve been using for a long time, totally made up off the top of my head. Feel free to fiddle with the ingredients – I do on occasion. In a crock pot combine: 1-2 pounds stew meat, depending on how carnivorous you are feeling 1 large onion, chopped 1 large can black beans, rinsed 1 red bell pepper, chopped, or add roasted peppers in the last hour of cooking 1 can tomato sauce 1 big can stewed tomatoes 1 tsp. cumin 3 tbsp. chili powder, or Continue Reading →

The sweet things in life

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Consider this your unofficial guide to sweeteners. The long and the short of it is….use sugar, raw honey or stevia. Anything else is just harmful chemicals. Your body will deal better with plain old sugar than it will with things like Aspartame/Nutrasweet (causes brain cancer in rats), Splenda (chlorinated sucrose, which is sugar!) or the new rage, Agave (high fructose corn syrup). If you do go for regular sugar, you can choose cane juice/syrup or raw sugar, which at least has all the healthy minerals that have been refined out of white sugar. I use stevia for blood sugar purposes. Continue Reading →

Perfect Hot Chocolate

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Now that winter is coming on, in Montana at least, hot chocolate is becoming a beverage of choice again. I use raw milk, raw cacao powder and Stevia. If you don’t have access to raw milk, use regular whole milk instead. I don’t actually heat the milk until it’s hot because heat destroys all the enzymes in the milk that make it healthy and digestible. That’s why so many people have an allergy to pasteurized milk. My body doesn’t tolerate pasteurized milk very well but I can drink raw milk with no problem. If you live in a state that Continue Reading →

Zucchini Blossom End Rot

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I learned something new in my garden this year. All of my zucchini plants (11 of them!) had several zucchini at a time that were half-grown with one end (the blossom end) rotting off. When two other people mentioned to me that they had the same thing happening, I immediately got on the computer to look it up. It turns out that Blossom End Rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the soil. So, once the plants are growing and the ends of the zucchini are rotting, it’s too late to add calcium to the soil. At that point, Continue Reading →

Easy Caesar dressing

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I don’t remember where I got this recipe (maybe Betty Crocker) but it’s great for Caesar salad or any salad. If you hate the taste of anchovies, leave out the paste. I don’t actually like anchovies but I don’t mind the little bit of paste in this dressing. It adds a nice salty taste. I tend to go crazy with my salads and add a lot of stuff on top:  fruit, nuts, and all kinds of veggies. My sister just recommended raw, shaved butternut but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. The funny thing is, when I Continue Reading →

Winter salads in Montana

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When it got too cold outside, I moved a couple of tomato, pepper, and basil plants inside to put under my grow lights. I’ve been told that’s a bad idea because you can bring garden pests inside, but my garden is relatively bug-free so I didn’t think it would be a problem. I also started some cilantro and brought in about 8 lettuce plants that I had started late in my backyard shady garden. This is just enough to give me some fresh greens for the winter, and the cilantro and basil will give me herbs for some of my Continue Reading →