Tomorrow is a big day… we are hosting our first Raising Entrepreneurs Conference for the Charlotte NC area (3rd conference ever)!!! As of today, we have well over 100 people signed up and are so excited about what the Lord is going to do through this conference. Please keep us in your prayers, that the Lord would use this to grow our faith in Him, and to encourage us, as well as all the many families who will be attending – even from different states.

Today we did LOTS of preparation for the conference. Bethany and Josiah went shopping for their snack stand this past week, and set to work making signs for the table they will set up outside the auditorium at breaks. I baked 40+ giant cookies, 50 bran muffins, and 2 pans of buttery black raspberry bars made with natural sugars, for the snack table. It was a LONG day filled with excitement and planning. Several of us worked on our testimonies/talks that we will be giving this weekend, and printed workbooks/handouts for the registration table.

We are looking forward to a good night’s rest, and an early start tomorrow! Stay tuned for updates from the conference.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” – Philippians 1:6

I made this recipe for our family last year, using whole wheat flour and sugar like it called for (see link to original recipe below). This time, I experimented using some gluten free baking flour, and natural sweeteners. One thing I learned recently that has really improved our cornbread recipe, and added a nice touch to our gluten free breads, is a simple principle about xanthan gum! Xanthan gum helps hold the bread together so it is softer and more bread-like vs. crumbly and dry.

When baking with gluten free flours add the following amounts of xanthan gum to your recipe.

Cookies……………………………1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour
Cakes and Pancakes………………1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour
Muffins and Quick Breads…………3/4 teaspoon per cup of flour
Breads………………………………1 to 1-1/2 tsp. per cup of flour
Pizza Dough……………………… 2 teaspoons per cup of flour
For Salad Dressings…Use 1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum per 8 oz. of liquid

For instance, if I am baking muffins (which I am!), I will need 3/4 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of flour. In the recipe below, I am using 2-1/4 cups gluten free flour (in place of regular flour), and the recipe will not turn out as it normally would with regular flour. In this case I will use about 1-3/4 tsp. or maybe even 2 tsp. xanthan gum just to be safe. In case you’re wondering, it turned out WONDERFUL!!!

Carrot Zucchini Muffins

For the original recipe (containing whole wheat flour, honey, and sugar) click HERE!

2-1/4 cups all purpose gluten free baking flour (We have tried King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill)

3/4 cup cooked oatmeal (I made mine using steel cut oats)

1 tsp. salt

1-3/4 – 2 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tablespoons ground flax seed powder

3 eggs

1 cup applesauce

1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

3 tablespoons agave syrup

1/2 cup coconut sugar or date sugar

10 drops vanilla creme flavored liquid stevia

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 cup shredded carrots

In a large bowl combine the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and flax seed powder. In a separate bowl beat together the eggs, applesauce, yogurt or sour cream, sweeteners, and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix in the zucchini and carrots. Spoon batter into well greased muffin tins, and bake at 400 F. degrees for about 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool a few minutes before removing muffins from the pan.

For a yummy topping, we mixed together about 4 oz Quark cheese (We buy it at Earthfare – a healthy local food store) with some maple syrup, liquid stevia, and finely ground pecans. It makes a delicious sweet cream cheese filling to spoon over top.

Note: Try substituting the carrots and zucchini for blueberries and/or grated apples!

It’s nice to be able to enjoy bread again (after what seems like FOREVER) even if it’s gluten free! The quark cheese and sour cream are two dairy products that we have added back in in small quantities, as well as farmer’s cheese, kefir and plain yogurt on occasion. With the last two, we’ve been having fun with the blender (fruit smoothies on Saturday!).

Enjoy with people you love!!!

Rice Waffles with Berry Syrup

To make the waffles, mix together the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl:

1 cup rice flour, or gluten free baking flour (Note: if it has baking powder in it, you will need to reduce the amount it calls for below)

1/4 cup Tapioca flour

1/4 cup Corn starch

1/4 cup Potato starch

1 Tablespoon Baking powder

1 teaspoon Salt

(You can use 1/2 cup of potato starch, or 1/2 cup of corn starch if you prefer not to use both)

1-1/3 cups Water + 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider vinegar, whisked together (or 1-1/3 cups buttermilk if you prefer)

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Tablespoons melted butter, or oil (coconut, sunflower, olive, etc.)

Whisk the ingredients together with a wire whisk or use a blender to ensure that there are no lumps of flour left. Heat a waffle iron or griddle to make waffles or pancakes. Serve hot with fruit syrup (recipe below) or other toppings! Makes about 8 square (4×4″) waffles.

Berry Syrup

To make the berry syrup, blend enough strawberries, blueberries, or other desired berries (with a little warm water) in the blender to make about 4-5 cups of puree (I partially thawed the frozen berries before blending them).

Pour into a saucepan.

Stir in several tablespoons of maple syrup (or whatever natural sugar you like best!) until it has reached your desired sweetness!

Heat over medium heat until the mixture is bubbling but not boiling.

Remove from heat and gradually whisk in tapioca flour until the liquid begins to thicken to desired consistency (about 1/8 cup).

Serve over waffles, and do enjoy!!!

It’s always fun to come up with something new and unique for dinner! We threw this recipe together one night and really enjoyed it! It’s a basic recipe that you can’t really mess up on, and of course there’s plenty of room to add or take from whatever, if you prefer to experiment with your own ideas. That’s one thing I love about cooking!!!

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients~

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

Olive oil

3 cups water

16 cups chicken stock or broth

3 cups wild rice (Add or take depending on how you like your soup)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

10 large carrots, thinly sliced

2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained

(Note: the crock pot is an ideal way to cook up a batch on a busy day !)

Frozen baby broccoli florets, thawed

Frozen cut green beans, thawed

Frozen sweet peas, thawed

Instructions~

In a large pot, sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil over med-high heat. The onion should be translucent when you are finished. Add the water, chicken stock, rice, and some salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken breasts, and carrots, and bring back to a boil again. Lower the temperature and cook until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Cut the chicken breasts into small bite size pieces and return to the pot. Add the black beans, broccoli, green beans, and peas. Simmer until the rice is cooked, and the carrots are soft.

Enjoy with people you love!!!

Today is day 85, and we’ve finally reached phase 3 of the Candida diet. This means that we can start incorporating a few more foods back into our menu – including small amounts of certain dairy products (plain yogurt, farmer’s cheese, kefir – things we don’t really eat much of anyway:-) ), corn products (like corn chips and corn bread, or just putting corn into our soup!) small amounts of ground meat (we made chili today using ground beef, and have put ground seasoned turkey in our eggs once or twice for breakfast) and a little more fruit than usual (like a half of an apple or a few berries once a day rather than just a few times a week). We can also experiment with a small amount of date sugar or other natural sugars as long as it is cooked – for instance, we will be making gluten free biscuits soon. So far we have tried Millet bread with our eggs for breakfast, and just today we made one of our favorite recipes for cornbread!!!

Corn Bread

1 1/2 cups yellow corn meal

1/2 cup flour (we used corn flour since we cannot have gluten yet)

1 T Baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk (we used rice milk since we are not supposed to have much dairy)

1/2 cup oil (we used butter – the one dairy product we have enjoyed throughout the entire diet!)

3 T sugar (we used a small amount of coconut crystals)

Mix all ingredients together and pour into an oiled 8×8″ pan. Bake at 350 F. degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy ~ we certainly did!!!

Tuesday is sweet potato day. We look forward to it because it is one of our favorite things to eat on this diet- maybe because it’s sweet . We have a couple of ways we like to make sweet potatoes, but recently we discovered a new recipe that everyone loves!!!

We make our yummy Apple-Berry Crisp once a week, for a Saturday treat. The idea occurred to me one day that we could work with our recipe to do something more like a sweet potato casserole, or pie… Since daddy’s birthday was coming up (March 16th), we decided to experiment with it for the occasion. My mom was a huge part in helping create this recipe! It has the consistency of a pumpkin pudding or pie (depending on how long you choose to bake it) but of course it’s much more healthy. It lacks the usual sugar you would find in a regular recipe, but to someone who is on the Candida diet or committed to a healthy diet all the time, it’s a real treat!

Sweet Potato Apple Dessert

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt 1-2 TBSP butter, and brush the bottom and sides of a 9×13″ pan.

Sprinkle 1/8 cup almond flour in the bottom of the pan, on top of the butter.

In a food processor or blender, combine the following ingredients and blend until smooth:

4 medium yellow apples, peeled, cored, and shredded

4 medium sweet potatoes, baked (until soft) and removed from their skins

3 TBSP Agave Syrup

10 drops liquid stevia (I used vanilla creme flavored liquid stevia)

1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk

4 eggs

5 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Pour the mixture into the buttered and floured baking pan.

To make the crumbs, mix together the following ingredients in a mixing bowl:

2 cups finely ground pecans

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup (4 TBSP)  very soft butter (partially melted works best)

10 drops liquid stevia

1 TBSP Agava syrup

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Use a pastry blender or fork to mix the crumbs together. Sprinkle evenly over the sweet potato filling.

Cover with foil and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes. (Watch the crumbs on top. You may want to take the foil off sooner or later, depending on how brown you like the top).

Cool completely, and then refrigerate. This dessert is best served completely cold – for a sweeter taste!

Spanish Rice

I posted a recipe for Spanish Paella a while back, which is a rice dish similar to this one. This is our other favorite recipe for Spanish rice, and since we rotate between the two from time to time, I though I’d share this one as well!

Saute the following ingredients in a large pot:

Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serves 10

You’ve probably discovered by now that we eat a lot of rice on this diet… This recipe is quick and simple. I’m sure you’ve made something similar to it for your family at some time. It’s really just rice with a lot of other yummy ingredients thrown in. Since it’s so quick and simple, we make it for lunch on Sundays, after church.

Fried Rice

Cooked brown rice – enough for your family (we usually cook large batches and freeze them so we can pull out a bag or two whenever we need it).

(Note: The following measurements are for a batch that serves about 10 people.)

1 onion, chopped small

10 eggs, beaten and fried (scrambled)

Frozen sweet peas, thawed – about 24 oz

Frozen broccoli, thawed (baby florets, or just small bite sized pieces) – about 1 pound

Saute the onion in olive oil in a large pot, until soft and thoroughly cooked (Use a lower temperature to avoid browning them while they are still crunchy inside). Add the peas and broccoli and eggs. You can also do some bean sprouts if you like – we have tried them a few times and really enjoyed them. (But be sure to add those before the broccoli, peas, and eggs as they need to be cooked and require extra time).

Once you have your ingredients mixed together in the pot, cook over a low temperature for a few minutes until heated. Then add them to the rice (already thoroughly heated!) and stir it up. Enjoy.

While our friend Christen was here, she made fresh salsa and gaucamole with us! It’s super easy, really tasty, and lots of fun for everyone!

So here’s what you do for the salsa…

In a mixing bowl combine the following ingredients:

There’s really no rule as to how much of everything you add. Just mix, taste, and add a little more of this or that until it agrees with your taste buds!

Now for the guacamole…

In a mixing bowl combine the following ingredients:

And just like the salsa, be creative! Do what you like to it to make it perfect…

Since we are not able to have salad dressings on our Candida diet, we have been using fresh tomatoes and avocados with every meal. Some of us were doubtful about putting the salsa and guacamole all over our salad… at first! It was DELICIOUS and we have decided to do it often.

If you do decide to create your own Mexican salad, add a little cooked brown rice for more deliciousness.

Apple-Berry Crisp

Serves 10

I posted this recipe on day 13, but wanted to share the yummier version we created this week! This recipe has the original oatmeal crust from our first recipe, but still includes the delicious crumb topping from our second recipe. Of course we made a few other changes along the way for further improvement .

To prepare the crust:

Brush 2 TBSP melted butter in the bottom of a 9×13 in pan.

Mix together 3-4 cups cooked oatmeal (we used steel cut oats) with 1 TBSP Agave syrup, 8 drops liquid stevia, and cinnamon to taste.

Spread in the bottom of the pan.

Bake @ 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until slightly crispy on top.

For filling, mix together the following ingredients:

3-4 TBSP melted butter

8 drops liquid Stevia (vanilla creme flavored)

1 TBSP Agave Syrup

3 oz Apple Juice

Cinnamon

1/8 cup (slightly heaped) Tapioca Flour

Prepare the fruit in a separate, large bowl.

4 cups yellow apples peeled, cored, and finely chopped

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Pour the filling mixture over the fruit and stir until thoroughly mixed.

For crumb topping mix together:

1/4 cup (4 TBSP) butter, softened

2 cups finely ground pecans

1 cup almond flour

3/4 TBSP Agave Syrup

6 drops liquid vanilla creme stevia

Pour the fruit filling mixture over the baked crust and sprinkle crumbs evenly on top. Cover with foil and bake @ 375 degrees for about 1 hour. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes longer.

Cool completely and refrigerate until cold!