Cherry Tart

To celebrate the holidays, I've made a simple cherry tart with a sublime pecan crust. It is easy to make, gluten free, dairy free, egg free and free of refined sugar.

Enjoy !


Crust:

1 1/2 cups pecans
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp gluten free vanilla
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup canola oil

Process pecans, rice flour, salt and cinnamon in food processor until pecans are coarsely chopped. Add vanilla, maple syrup and canola oil and process until well incorporated. Carefully press mixture into tart or pie pan, and set aside.

Filling:

20 ounces frozen cherries, thawed
1/3 cup maple syrup
5 tablespoons tapioca flour

Combine filling ingredients and pour into crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until filling is set.

Super Immunity Juice

Super Immunity Juice
Originally uploaded by lastbeanburrito

This tasty green juice is a great immune booster full of antioxidants and vitamin C, and is easy to make too.

It's great during this time of year when citrus and dark leafy greens are in abundance. Make some the next time you feel a cold or flu sneezing your direction.

Here's the recipe:

Wash and chop equal parts celery, parsley, dandelion greens and kale. Process through a juicer. Add the juice of one lime and 1/2 grapefruit.

Drink !

Strawberry Banana Lime Fruit Leather

For reasons that I don't really understand, neither of my two kids like fruit. They eat arugula, kale, swiss chard, and broccoli with abandon. Not to mention daikon, radishes, onions, cauliflower and mushrooms. But give them a strawberry or a blueberry and it's like you asked them to eat worms. If given the choice, actually, they'd probably eat the worm.

Both will eat apples, bananas and melon, so we eat lots of those around here. And they'll eat pretty much any fruit if it's dried. Dried mango, dried blueberries, dried cranberries ... and fruit leather has always been a big hit.

With vegetables, I've found it helps if I let my kids pick out whatever they want and then have them help cook. Cauliflower became a favorite when we discovered purple cauliflower at the farmer's market and I let my older son stir fry it with ginger, cilantro and lemon juice. Kale was added to the list when we figured out how to make crispy kale chips in the oven, and I let him do all the prep from washing the kale, removing the stems and rubbing on the oil and salt.

So that is my strategy with fruit too. On Sunday at our local farmer's market, I let my older son pick out whatever he wanted. I beamed with pride as he picked carrots, fennel, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower and red pepper for the vegetables. For fruit he was more limited but finally decided on apples, strawberries and limes.

When we got home we talked about what we wanted to do with the fruit. The apples he wanted to save for his lunch box and snack time. The strawberries and limes we decided to make into fruit leather.


So here's what we did.

1 pint of strawberries
2 limes
3 bananas

Wash and cut up the strawberries, then add them to a blender together with the peeled bananas and juice from the limes. Blend until smooth and pour onto a dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for about 5 hours or until dry.

Verdict: A big winner. Both boys loved the fruit leather. In fact, I had to put it away before they ate it all. For me, the tang of the lime juice was a nice complement to the sweetness of the strawberries. I will definitely make this again (maybe I'll even try to sneak in a kiwi next time... ).

Cranberry Pumpkin Corn Muffins

These fabulous and seasonal mini muffins are gluten free, dairy free, egg free and refined sugar free corn muffins. They are easy to make, kid friendly, and very versatile. They are great for breakfast, snacks and lunch boxes, and I use them almost every year as a base to make a savory cornbread stuffing for the holidays. I get very hungry for these at this time of year !

Recipe:
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup brown rice flour*
1/4 cup potato starch*
1/4 cup tapioca flour*
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum*
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 and oil muffin tin.

Grind flax seed in a spice or coffee grinder (or use pre-ground). Mix ground flax seed with 1/2 cup hot water and set aside. The flax mixture will become gooey. This replaces two eggs.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the cornmeal, brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and sea salt. Set aside.

In a smaller bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, canola or other vegetable oil, maple syrup, and flax mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour and mix quickly. Add 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries and stir to incorporate.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until down.

This recipe makes approximately 12 regular sized muffins or 24 mini muffins.

*These make a basic gluten free flour mix. If you don't have all the flours on hand, or are trying to avoid one of these flours, you can substitute 1 1/2 cups any gluten free flour mix for the brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour and xanthan gum.

Garlicky Greens

I love all greens, especially cooked with garlic. Packed with flavor, dark green leafy vegetables are nutrient dense, full of fiber and low in calories.

Here I stir-fried a combination of greens that I had on hand -- half a bunch of kale, the tops from a bunch of radishes, and a handful each of dandelion greens and spinach -- with garlic, and finished by adding a splash of salty and sour ume plum vinegar. It's a recipe inspired by Alice Waters' Garlicky Kale in her Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook.

This is not just a dish for adults. My kids love it too.

Recipe:

1 bunch assorted dark green leafy vegetables
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
5 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons ume plum vinegar, or to taste

Wash greens well, and spin dry. Remove large stems, and tear or chop greens and smaller stems into pieces.

Heat wok or large pan over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add greens. Stir greens to coat with oil. Once the greens begin to wilt, add water and cover. Cook until bright green, about 4 minutes.

Push greens to one side of the wok, and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add minced garlic to the oil and fry until fragrant.

Turn off heat, add ume plum vinegar (if you don't have plum vinegar you can substitute with whatever vinegar you have in your kitchen) and stir well. Serve immediately.