SCD Halloween Finger Cookies

It’s that scary time of year again when SCD parents search desperately for alternatives to mainstream Halloween treats.

Here’s one option that’s safe for lunch boxes, Halloween parties, and if made in tiny versions and well packed, even for trick-or-treat bags.

SCD Gingerbread Witches’ Fingers

6 cups almond flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup honey
¼ cup SCD yogurt
1 egg
2 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1 Tbs. ground ginger
1 Tbs. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

Add baking soda to almond flour. (It’s best if you sift them together, but I’m usually too lazy for that, and just combine with a whisk until all of the lumps are out.)

Whisk honey, yogurt, egg, and spices together, adjusting spices to your taste.

Add almond flour mixture to liquid/spice mixture, either by hand or in a stand mixer. (I prefer the Kitchen Aid.)

If the dough is too sticky, add more almond flour a little at a time. This dough will never be equivalent to a gluten-based dough, but it does need to be dry enough to handle — but sticky enough to stay together.

You can refrigerate the dough at this point to make it easier to handle if you’d like. (This dough also freezes well.)

When ready to make the finger cookies, roll the dough into finger-like shapes, adding knuckles, warts, etc. Press an almond into the “finger’s” tip for the fingernail, and use a toothpick or knife to score wrinkles into the skin.

Place on a parchment lined cookie tray and bake for approximately 15 minutes. Be careful. Because the dough is dark, it burns easily. The baking time will also depend on how thick the cookies are, so err on the side of caution.

Serve to little ghosts and goblins.

Why I Love My Vita-Mix — SCD Chili Powder

This super simple — and frugal — recipe is easy to adapt to you (or your kid’s) tastes.

You need only one ingredient: Dried chili peppers. And a heavy-duty blender or food processor.

That’s it. Of course you can make more complicated versions, like Alton Brown’s Chili Powder. But for those on the SCD, simpler is usually better.

The instructions are easy too:

Remove the stems (and seeds if you prefer less heat or can’t tolerate them) from the dried peppers of your choosing. (Make sure to use gloves for this part.) I used New Mexico chilis in these pictures.

Then place them into the Vita-Mix. Turn it on low, then quickly to high. Use the tamper to grind the peppers to the consistency you like. When finished, let the powder settle before you open the container.



I found that the peppers we grow and dry our selves are dryer than those I purchase. So, if you’re using the store-bought ones, be aware that the little bit of moisture they contain affects the texture of the chili powder. When I use purchased peppers, I store the powder in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

25 SCD Snacks

With kids home from school for the summer, finding SCD snacks can be hard. And if your SCD kid is prone to losing weight, as mine is, it’s especially important to have snacks on hand.

I’ve compiled a list of ones we like, including some calorie-dense snacks as well as some lighter fare. Assume that the items are homemade unless specifically stated otherwise.



1. Dried fruit and nut butter
2. Fresh fruit and nut butter
3. Vegetables and guacamole
4. SCD chips and guacamole
5. Cheese sticks
6. SCD cookies (like Ginger Bear Biscuits, Healing Foods, page 207; or Brownies, Healing Foods, page 196; or Monster Cookies, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, page 132)
7. Coconut date balls (Healing Foods, page 53)
8. Gelatin made with SCD juice
9. Popsicles made with SCD juice, yogurt, and/or fruit
10. Almond butter packs
11. Boiled eggs and SCD mayonnaise
12. SCD waffle sticks (or shapes cut out with cookie cutters) and honey and/or nut butter
13. SCD muffins
14. SCD cupcakes
15. SCD Caramel Toffees (although these must be kept refrigerated) (Healing Foods, page 54)
16. Skewers (or cute Bento toothpicks) of ham or turkey, and cheese, and SCD pickles or olives
17. SCD fruit leather
18. SCD ice cream
19. SCD slushies (blended frozen fruit, juice, and ice if needed)
20. SCD smoothies (blended fruit, yogurt, juice or coconut milk, and nuts)
21. Sardines served with SCD cheese crackers
22. Farmer’s cheese (described in Breaking the Vicious Cycle) and honey
23. SCD Pretzels
24. SCD Carrot cake (Healing Foods, page 204; or Breaking the Vicious Cycle, page 127)
25. Crispy eggplant chips with marinara dipping sauce

Hope you’re having a great summer and that this is helpful. If you have favorite SCD snacks I’d love to hear about them below.

SCD Meal Plan

Here’s another meal plan to get your month started. Hope it helps. And I’d love to hear about your meal plan successes in the comments below.

Breakfasts

Monday: SCD pancakes, homemade strawberry syrup, homemade SCD sausage
Tuesday: SCD yogurt, toasted nuts and fruit
Wednesday: SCD carrot pancakes with honey, homemade SCD sausage
Thursday: Eggs, bacon, cooked apples
Friday: SCD pumpkin pie

Lunches (Packed for School)

Monday: Applegate “octopus” hotdog, SCD carrot cake, fruit, peas
Tuesday: SCD salmon patties, fruit, SCD banana muffins
Wednesday: SCD Waffle Sticks, homemade SCD sausage, homemade strawberry syrup
Thursday: Applegate hotdog, homemade butternut squash fries, fruit, SCD cupcake
Friday: SCD pizza (w/provolone and meat), fruit, SCD carrot cake

Dinners

Monday: SCD eggplant parmesan, roasted Brussels sprouts
Tuesday: SCD vegetarian chili (with beef, cheese, etc. available to add in)
Wednesday: Huevos rancheros (with beef available), salad, fresh guacamole, homemade SCD salsa, etc.
Thursday: Broiled salmon, baby carrots glazed in SCD orange juice, SCD garlic toast
Friday: SCD Crockpot chicken with onions, mushrooms and carrots, homemade applesauce

Snacks

Fruit smoothies
Shrek juice (green smoothie)
Almond butter packs
SCD Trail Mix
Boiled eggs (in Bento shapes)
SCD gelatin
SCD banana, mango ice cream
SCD nut brittle
SCD carrot cake
Veggies & homemade SCD green goddess dip
Sardines & SCD crackers
Homemade SCD banana chips
SCD yogurt
SCD eggplant chips

No-fall SCD Bread

If you’ve ever made SCD bread, you know how fickle it can be. During cooking, it collapses creating an ugly slump in the middle of the loaf, and when you try to eat it, it crumbles. But, with a little extra attention in the end, you can keep it from falling apart so easily. The trick is to slow down the cooling process.

Here’s the recipe, adapted from Keri’s French Toast Bread at SCDrecipe.com:

2 ½ cups almond flour (blanched)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup homemade SCD yogurt
3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Whisk eggs by hand or mixer until blended. (This is different from the original recipe, indicated that eggs should be separated and the whites beaten until stiff. Do not separate the eggs.)
3. Add the yogurt to the eggs and stir until eggs are distributed.
4. In a separate bowl, add the baking soda, salt and almond flour together. Sift if necessary.
5. Add the apple cider vinegar to the egg mixture and stir. You should see bubbles form.
6. Dump the dry mix (baking soda, salt, almond flour) into the egg+yogurt mix and stir gently until the batter is completely moistened. Don’t overmix.
7. Pour into a loaf pan, preferably one lined with parchment paper.
8. Cook 45-55 minutes, depending on the size of the pan, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
9. Turn the oven off, but leave the pan in place.
10. Prop the oven door open a few inches to let some of the heat escape.
11. Keep the bread in the oven for 15-20 minutes (or longer) so that it cools slowly. This will help prevent the saggy middle that often plagues SCD bread. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Another trick I use is to multiply the recipe by 1.5 and make one slightly larger loaf — lined with parchment — in a large toaster oven. This small size of the oven makes it easy to prop the door, and the oven cools off slowly enough to prevent drooping, but quickly enough to prevent burning.

After I remove the bread from the oven, I let it cool completely, in the pan before lifting it out via the parchment paper, placing it on a cutting board and slicing it. Then I place each of the slices on a lined cookie sheet and freeze them until we need them. That maintains their shape, and prevents the bread from spoiling before we use it.

When we’re ready to eat it, I agree with Keri that it’s best toasted, although we usually do that in a pan with a little butter, or in the toaster oven, but again with a little butter. The fat seems to help it stick together better.

The slow-cooling trick also works with other SCD baked treats, like these muffins.

Happy Eating!

SCD Meal Planning for a New Year

Happy New Year!

Not only is it the beginning of a new week, it’s the beginning of a new year, the time when many of us vow to get into shape, eat better, stick to a schedule, . . . . You know the drill.

For the most part, I’m one of those people the FlyLady calls “born organized.” Yet, in the midst of daily life, I struggle to make sure my family eats healthfully. Given our diverse dietary needs that can be a real challenge. Like everyone else, we still struggle, but the easiest way I’ve found to facilitate healthy eating (and maintain a budget) is to make a plan and stick to it.

For instance, in November (2011) I participated in NaNoWriMo for the second time. I knew I would be devoting most of my time to writing, so in October I wrangled some help from my husband and older daughter. First, I planned out all of the meals we would need for the month, then we did some communal cooking, and finally, I packed 43 SCD meals for my younger daughter, and a month’s worth of main dishes for the family, into the freezer. Voila! Not exactly as easy as pie, but easier than cooking — and cleaning up — everyday.

So, with the new year upon us, I am revising my menu planning (and freezer cooking), all while sticking to the grocery budget, and finding food that everyone will eat.

I know how hard menu planning — especially with strict diets — can be, so I’m posting my preliminary meal plan for this week, including a brief entry for a small SCD birthday gathering. To make things easy, I’ll modify the week’s plan to fit the month.

Please note that I’ve left out some of the details about adapting the recipes for my older, vegetarian daughter, and that Applegate products are not technically SCD legal.

I hope this gives you some ideas, especially for SCD lunches and SCD birthday treats. And I’d love to hear your meal-planning goals for the new year in the comments below.

Breakfasts
Monday: SCD pumpkin custard, smoothie
Tuesday: Egg, veggie, & meat mini-frittata
Wednesday: SCD pancakes with homemade citron syrup
Thursday: Homemade SCD yogurt & grain-free “granola”
Friday: Poached eggs, bacon, SCD toast

Lunches (Packed for School)
Monday: Applegate “octopus” hotdog, SCD gingerbread cookies, fresh fruit: grapefruit, blackberries, star fruit
Tuesday: SCD salmon salad in zucchini wraps (or SCD salmon patties), fruit, SCD carrot cake
Wednesday: SCD Waffle Sticks, homemade SCD sausage, pumpkin custard
Thursday: Applegate Hotdog, cheese stick or BabyBel, fresh veggies and dip
Friday: Mini-SCD pizzas (w/provolone and meat), salad/veggies, SCD cookie

Dinners
Monday: Split Pea Soup (w/ crumbled bacon), fresh grated Parmesan
Tuesday: Chicken, roasted carrots & onions
Wednesday: Acorn squash (w/pork or homemade SCD sausage)
Thursday: Black bean soup (w/ground beef); homemade SCD yogurt, avocado, cheese
Friday: SCD salmon patties, butternut squash fries, homemade applesauce, salad

Snacks
SCD carrot pancakes
Almond butter packs
SCD Trail Mix
Boiled eggs (in Bento shapes)
SCD cookies
SCD crackers
SCD carrot cake
Veggies & homemade SCD green goddess dip
Sardines & SCD crackers
Applegate turkey & cheese roll ups
SCD pumpkin custard
Homemade SCD apple chips

SCD Birthday Treats
SCD vanilla cupcakes (w/SCD dripped cream yogurt & honey “icing”), fresh fruit decorations: star fruit, “candied” blueberries
SCD gelatin shapes (made with juice)