Another Blessing!

My Newest Kitchen Gadget! It's got SEVEN TRAYS to dehydrate on!!!...swanky!

Another blessing has come into my life....a food dehydrator! I'm so excited, now I can make my own beef jerky, make my own dried cranberries...BIG YEAH to that since the dried cranberries you can buy at the store are loaded with sugar killing the nutritional value!...I can make my own trail mixes and the list goes on! Totally a blessing. I had mentioned to a few friends over a month ago that I would love to have a food dehydrator, but that I wasn't going to get one unless one just "dropped in my lap" so to speak, and this one did....brand new, never used....I was online totally not thinking of a dehydrator, but I stumbled on an advertisement of someone who lives right in the same town I live in wanting to get rid of their dehydrator for $1.00, yeah, $1.00 that they had never taken out of the box, still brand new, b/c they had no clue what it was and they considered it clutter in their house. My first thought was SCAM, but then I thought, maybe it could be a blessing since I was desiring one and they happened to live right in the same town as me, so I sent them a message and they immediately responded. Trying to represent God well, I felt I should be honest, so I told them what a dehydrator was and how much it was worth brand new...but even after the explanation they still were like, whatever, I don't know how to use it and they sold it to me. What a blessing....beef jerky, my own dried cranberries and other things I'm sooo looking forward to making. This was definitely one of my desires fulfilled. Awesome!

Healthy TURNIP Fries

Wendy, Kim, and Justin Bacon's mom and step Dad gave me a big bag of turnips from their garden. (They also shared another bag with my parents.) In my diet these days I have replaced potatoes with turnips since they have a lot more nutritional value than a potato and I can do the same things with turnips as potatoes....make mashed turnips instead of mashed potatoes, make french "turnip" fries instead of the traditional french fries made from potatoes. Here are pics that I shot of my healthy french fries. I baked them instead of frying. :-) Peeled skin off turnips, cut them up into fries, coated them with olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, and sea salt, and vahlah...yummy.

From the Internet
Turnips are a "starch" vegetable, but provide only one third the amount of calories asan equal amount of potatoes. Turnips provide an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber,folic acid, manganese, pantothenic acid, and copper. They also offer a very goodsource of thiamine, potassium, niacin, and magnesium. In addition, they are a goodsource of vitamin B6 and E, folic acid, and riboflavin.

Healthy Natural Strawberry Topping Cream

Loving Dannon Greek Yogurt! (Dannon is the only brand of GREEK YOGURT that I can find that is really all natural.) I use plain unsweetened Dannon greek yogurt for "sour cream", and also in place of regular whipping cream, I add a dash of pure powdered stevia extract, if I want flavored topping cream such as shown below (strawberry cream) I'll puree fresh berries, strawberries in this case, add rice milk, lemon juice, and stevia, and mix it into the yogurt and vahlah, healthy sugar free sweet strawberry cream topping! Loving Greek Yogurt!

The strawberries, lemon juice, rice milk, and stevia all pureed and blended together waiting to be mixed in with the greek yogurt!

Sugar and Gluten Free Berry Pie

I tried my hands at making a traditional Berry Pie, only making it sugar and gluten free which is "my game plan" for food these days. Making yummy classics healthy. Originally, it was just going to be a strawberry pie, but I noticed I had blueberries in the frig that were about to go overripe, so rather than letting them go to waste, I decided to mix them in turning it into a Berry Pie. Came out yummy. Since whipping cream is unhealthy and is high in calories, I've learned just this year to use Dannon Greek Yogurt. I add a dash of pure powdered stevia extract to the greek yogurt and vahlah, healthy "whip cream topping."

Spring Cleaning Design Almost Destroyed :-)

Got a head start to spring cleaning this weekend. 1/3 of the house is finished, but still have 2/3 to finish, but at least a big chunk is done. I almost had a "casualty" in cleaning today. I somehow got the safari canopy sucked up in my vaccuum. I had to practically take the vacuum apart to get it out. Fortunatly, it only snagged, but it ripped in one spot, so my next "sewing project" will be mending my safari canopy. Can't believe I was so absent minded with the vaccuum, but it feels good to have a part of the house all cleaned from top to bottom.

Sugar and Gluten Free Sweet Potoato Pie

Latest update on my cookbook that I'm working on, for fun, is that I still have a long ways to go before finishing it, but I'm about 1/4 finished with it. ..coming up with healthy recipes...trying them....recording ingredients and amounts used...taking photos...a lot that goes into it, but thanks to my blog, it helps me to record it while sharing with friends and acquaintances. Can't wait until I can compile all recipes together in the cookbook though. This weekend I was recuping from being sick, so I was quarantined inside my house all weekend and didn't want to over work lest I relapse, so I decided to make a weekend of cooking. Didn't over do it, rested, yet was productive. Great way to use a recuping weekend. I tried a sugar and gluten free sweet potato pie made from scratch and it came out fabulous.

Sugar and Gluten Free Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients:
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes
½ cup olive oil
1 tsp pure stevia powder extract
1/2 cup rice or almond milk
2 brown cage free eggs
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp all natural vanilla extract

For Pie Crust:
½ cup olive oil
1 ½ cups brown rice flour
4 tbsp cold water

Directions:
Boil sweet potato(es) whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add oil, and mix well with mixer. Stir in stevia, rice milk, eggs, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 minutes.

To Make Pie Crust: Cut oil into rice flour until a crumb like texture forms. Add water. Work dough with hands until soft and form into ball. Place dough in 8 inch pie pan and press it into the bottom and sides, use the back of a spoon or fingers.

Yummy Spicy Chili

...and still stuck at home recovering from being sick...so today was the Sunday of cooking. Last week I was telling a friend growing up that my parents were always involved in chili cookoffs and such, and that I think it would be cool to host one, so I've had chili on the mind, but since I was ill last week, food wasn't something that I consumed much of, so now that I can taste again, chili was my kickoff to a what do you do when you're stuck inside your house all day weekend recovering from being sick....don't want to over do anything while recuping, so of of course cooking is what I did. The chili came out fantastic. At least I thought so...it's way, way spicy, not too spicy, but not for those who don't like spicy things....I loaded it w/jalepeno peppers, cayenne pepper, etc. I think this is helping me to get well. Zesty all natural healthy ingredients and I'm sooooo happy it came out! I basically mixed a bunch of peoples chilis together into one w/the ingredients that I liked.

Zesty and Spicy Chili
Ingredients:
2 lbs lean all natural grass fed ground beef
1 large yellow onion; diced
16 oz pinto beans
16 oz black beans
3.5 cups freshly diced tomatoes
10 oz all natural tomato sauce
2 jalapeño peppers, minced

½ cup chili powder (recipe to make all natural chili powder below)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:
Soak and then cook pinto and black beans in together in a big pot. Set aside. Cook and stir the beef, onion in a large pot over medium heat until the beef is brown and onion are tender. Drain grease from beef. For a few minutes fry the chopped jalepeno peppers in a skillet for about 2 minutes, and remove from heat. Stir in cooked beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, jalapenos, chili powder, red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Bring mixture to a slow boil; cover and reduce heat. The longer you let your chili simmer, the more flavorful it will be.

Healthy Homemade Chili Powder

8 tsp garlic powder

8 tsp ground cumin

6 tsp paprika

6 tsp oregano

6 tsp red cayenne pepper