Gluten Free Pie Crust

3/4 cup of pecans
3/4 cup of almonds
2 teaspoons coconut oil - melted
2 teaspoons raw honey - melted
pinch of kosher salt

soak almonds, for 24 hours, in water. Drain and dehydrate at 110 for 24 hours.

chop almonds and pecans in a food processor equipped with an "s" blade until you have a coarse flour.

Transfer to a bowl and pour in melted oil and honey. mix until you have a sticky dough like ball of deliciousness.

I like to use gloves for this part: Roll dough into a ball and put in a 9 inch pie pan. flatten dough out until it evenly covers the bottom and the sides of the pan. to set, refrigerate overnight.

Tomorrow is the filling!!!! :-D

The Recipe Club

I found this AWESOME book at out library the other day at the "leave one, pick one" section (free books) The Recipe Club, awesome book about two friends from a young age writing each other and sending recipes to one another.... I think everyone needs recipes like this just to have on file! :D I'm going to be posting these as well as my own found recipes!!! YAY!

 Chocolate Icebox Cake:
 2 cups heavy cream
 3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
 1 teaspoon vanilla
 35 chocolate wafer cookies
 3 tablespoons semisweet chocolate bits

1. In a large bowl, beat heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed until stiff peaks form.

2. On one side of 6 chocolate wafers, spread about 2 heaping teaspoons whipped cream. place them on top of each other to make a stack. Top the stack with a plain wafer.Continue to make stacks like this until all the wafers are used. Turn each stack on its side. Place stacks side by side to make a big log on a plate. Frost log with remaining whipped cream. Sprinkle with the chocolate bits. Cover and refrigerate at least 5 hours or overnight.

CAKE POPS!!!

OK so these little bites of cake are covered in chocolate and stuck on sticks! So I've seen them every where and have never had one, so I took advantage of being at starbucks before jumping on the train this weekend. Let me just say"hmmmm" I don't think they are the best but, I'm sure there are better ones out there!!! Well I decided to give them a try, I found a short video by Bakerella on youtube. She shows you every thing you need and how to make them in about 5 min. You get the basic idea...

What you will need: a 9x13 sheet of cake ( any cake you desire)
*You can use browines as well just omit the frosting, brownies have the consistency you are looking for with out adding frosting.
1/2 cup frosting (any flavor you desire to go with the cake)
Lolipop sticks
Melting chocolates
sprinkles for decorating or a second color of melting chocolates
*double boiler or chocolate melter
*Styrofoam block or something you can stand the pops up in 

Ok so once the cake has completely cools, cut it into 4 pieces. Take one of the chunks and break it in half, over a large bowl, you can rub the cake together against each other to create cake crumbs.
Once you have done this to the whole cake mix in frosting, you may need more or less than this depending on the dryness of the cake. I used 1/4 cup to slowly mix in frosting, if you put too much it can feel too mushy in the center.

You can put this mixture in the fridge for about 15 min or you can just roll the balls by hand at this point. You will want to put the balls in the fridge for another 15 min. or in the freezer for no more than 10 min., you don't want them to freeze!

While the balls are chilling, get your chocolate ready! If you have a chocolate melter, let it do its thing! If you have a double boiler you want to melt your chocolate and if you don't have one and don't want to spend extra money, all you need is a pot with boiling water and a bowl you can sit over the boiling water, make sure you mix your chocolate well, you don't want to bottom to get burnt! 
 Take you balls out of your icebox... get your lollipop sticks ready and have a  bowl with your sprinkles, if using a second color of chocolate make sure you have it melted and ready inside of a candy piping bag.

 So what you want to do is take a lollipop stick dip an end into some of the chocolate (Not to much) you then take the end with the chocolate on it and stick it into the cake ball, I found letting them sit at this point, to let the chocolate dry a bit helped A LOT!!! Take the cake pop and stick it straight into the melted chocolate, make sure you don't swirl the cake pop or move it around too much in the chocolate, you want to put it straight in and if you need to get the tops you can tilt it slowly to get it all covered. Take the pop out of chocolate and gently tap against the side of your hand to get excess off. While its still wet add your sprinkles and or decorate!!! Stand them up to dry and let stand for about 5 to 10 min. until shell is completely hardened. TA-DAAAAH!!! CAKE POPS <3

Zucchini with "pesto"

This is something I modified from the website www.rawfoodrecipes.com.

Zucchini with "pesto"

Pesto:

1/2 cup cashews (chopped)
1 cup spinach
1/2 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup garlic infused olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 lemon, freshly squeezed
freshly ground pepper, to taste

Pasta:
Kelp or zucchini noodles (I used a spiral slicer to cut the zucchini)

combine all pesto ingredients in a blender or a food processor with a "s" blade. process until smooth.

combine 1 cup of the noodles and 1/4 cup of pesto in a bowl. cover and shake.

serve and enjoy!!!

yay blog!!! :-)

yay blog!!!

Thanks sooooo much for putting all of this together, liz!!! I really appreciate it! I have some yummy recipes to put online but I have yet to take pictures of my creations! I will post something as soon as I get home!!

3 bean salad!

this one has been stolen from banthebland.net! I love you Yari!!! this is a house favorite, super simple and  DELICIOUS!!!!

1 can organic pinto beans (drained)
1 can organic black beans (drained)
1 can organic garbanzo beans (drained)
1 tbls. Olive Oil
Cilantro- chopped
1/2 cup chopped white onion
lime juice- of 2 or 3 limes
Sea Salt
  

Mix all ingredients together, toss add salt to taste 

boo-boo bags

I haven't made one yet but as soon as I do I'll add a picture. I found these pouches 6"x6" filled with FLAX seeds!!! you can put them in the freezer, which seems much better than an ice pack  or you can warm them up in the microwave for 30 seconds if your baby has a tummy ache!! They need to stay in the freezer for about 2 hours and they are ready to go! So I found them on a website and she was selling them for $14 which I thought was a little much... and she also uses them for another reason, one that I'm not 100% sold on, but you can also use them to wake a sleeping baby who needs to nurse by tapping the pouch on the bottoms of the feet... I think if your baby is hungry they can wake up and let you know, the feed every 2 hours even if you have to wake them up is, in my opinion "dumb"....

Rapsberry vinaigrette

since its SPRING and SUMMER will be here before we know it... and nothing is better then home made...

 3/4 cup Olive Oil
 1/2 cup raspberry vinegar
 1/4 cup chopped shallots
 2 crushed garlic cloves
 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
 2 tbls. minced fresh Taragon
 salt and pepper to season

In a bowl whisk together the vinegar, shallots, garlic, mustard,taragon, salt and pepper to taste.
 Slowly whisk in the oil until it is well blended. Use immediately or store in the frig and shake well before serving.                               Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing


 

WOOO lets get this started.... RED VELVET CUPCAKES!!

Yep!! Desert, its the best and I love this recipe! I think I like the frosting more but all in all great!


Cake:
 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
 1 1/2 cups sugar
 1 tsp. baking soda    1 tsp. salt    1 tsp. cocoa powder

1 1/2  cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk (room temp)
1 tsp. white distilled vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbls. Red food color

Frosting:
1lb. cream cheese (softened)
2 sticks of butter (softened)
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups sifted confectioners sugar

 Pre-heat oven to 350 deg.          makes 24 cupcakes!

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, slat, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk,eggs, vinegar, vanilla and food color with a hand held electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
 Fill 2/3 of the way in each tin and bake 20-22 min. Turn the pans once, half way through. Tet the cupcakes with a toothpick. Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting, well in the mean time make the frosting!
 
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy!

Garnish: chopped pecans
              fresh raspberries or strawberries

              sprinkles or just get creative!!! :D   

My Procrastination....

Has let this little project on the back burner. I wanted to start a place where we could share ideas, ask questions, get some help, talk and all the other stuff that comes along in the crafting world. I would like for us to be place where we could all spark new ideas and interest in each other!