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)

Cheater Bento

So technically it’s not cheating, but here’s an easy and inexpensive way to start Bento-ing for your kids without laying out big bucks, or driving to one of the large metropoleis if, like me, you live in a region lacking in Japanese food supplies. Of course you can simply order online too. Which I did. But that’s another post.

In the baby/toddler products aisle of stores like Meijer, Wal-Mart, etc., you may stumble across this cute and very useful snack box by Sassy, called the On-the-Go Feeding Set. I found mine locally for $5.99 and have been packing it full for school lunches for my younger daughter. I know it looks tiny, but following the Bento model can be loaded with calories. And since I also pack a similar container for the afternoon snack, I’m not worried that she’s eating too few calories. Honestly, since I’ve started doing this, I think she’s eating more calories. Certainly, she’s bringing home fewer mangled leftovers.

It isn’t super tight and leaks a little, but I take that into account when filling it. And there isn’t as much of a learning curve to packing it as I’ve found there is with a traditional Bento box.

If you want to check out the different styles of easily accessible Bento boxes for kids and don’t want to get your hands dirty, check out anotherlunch.com where Melissa shows pictures of the different types, and evaluates them by size, washability, etc. She even has a Sassy Box category, where you can see the Sassy lunches she’s created.

And how about you? If you’ve used one for your kids, especially for those on specialty or medical diets, I’d love to hear how it’s working.