Tropical Pineapple Date Bars for Meghan Telpner

Earlier this summer I shared this delicious recipe on Meghan Telpner's wonderful website Making Love in the Kitchen. I first learned about Meghan in 2009 with her first tutorial, the Green Smoothie Cleanse! I made 3 green smoothies a day for 3 days with Meghan and learned more about real nutrition during that week than I had in my entire life. I blogged about my experience and I can honestly say it changed my life.

Over a year later my (and my husband's) eating habits have completely changed. Many of our meals are vegetarian, and we eat superfoods every single day. My husband still uses sugar in his southern style sweet tea and occasionally you just need a good chocolate chip cookie, or a piece of chocolate cake.. but other than that white sugar doesn't play a role in our diet anymore.

I still have green smoothies and/or protein smoothies several times a week, most often for breakfast.

Because of Meghan I have learned how to prepare and eat real, nourishing, whole, living, and healing foods.

The recipe I'm sharing today uses several delicious superfoods, is seriously easy to make, and is perfect for summer! These bars are lightly sweetened with fresh pineapple, dates, and raw honey. Chock full of healthy fiber and plant-based proteins, these Tropical Pineapple Date Bars the perfect afternoon snack.



Tropical Pineapple Date Bars
created by Carrie Forbes of Gingerlemongirl.com

Bar Ingredients:
1/2 cup ground almonds (or almond flour)
1 cup certified gluten free rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons raw honey
1/4 cup hot water mixed with 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup crushed pineapple (I use fresh pineapple, which I pulverize in the magic bullet)
3 medjool dates, pitted, and finely chopped

Optional Toppings:
2 tablespoons raw pumpkin seeds

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub coconut oil on the bottom of an 8x8" glass baking dish & set aside.
• In a large bowl mix together ground almonds, rolled oats, quinoa flakes, shredded coconut, and baking soda. Using your hands or a fork mix in coconut oil & honey into the rolled oat mixture. You will have a crumbly dough.
• Set aside 1/3 of the crumbly dough into a small bowl for the topping of the bars.
• With the remaining 2/3 of dough mix in the hot water & ground flax seed mixture.
• Press the dough into the greased 8x8" glass baking dish.
• In a small bowl mix the crushed pineapple with the chopped dates. Pour the pineapple mixture over the pressed dough.
• Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of crumbly dough over the pineapple/date filling.
• Sprinkle raw pumpkin seeds over the top if you would like!
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until bars are golden brown and smell amazingly delicious!
• Cut into 9 large bars or 12 smaller bars. Let cool on the counter and then store in the fridge in an airtight container. These are BEST right out of the oven after being cooled, but they are also incredibly good from the fridge!
  

Sautéed Kale & Mushrooms

Kale is one of my very favorite vegetables/greens. It's simple to prepare. You can use the leaves raw in fruit smoothies (make sure there is fruit or you will definitely taste the kale! lol) or salads. You can quickly sauté the greens and use them as a base for your meal instead of pasta or rice.

Elana calls it "McKale" and her boys eat these wonderful greens often in the summer. Meghan, Shauna, Amy, and many other food bloggers have been making "kale chips"... Lauren even found a company who makes kale chips and reviewed them for us.

Last week I had some leftover nitrate-free, organic bacon from Applegate Farms and we needed a fast meal for dinner. I also had tons of kale that I meant to use for smoothies... but I love sautéed greens so why not use them.

I came up with this simple & quick meal for dinner. The idea actually came from our recent series of 30 Days Gluten Free Quick & Easy Meals. Anna had made a bacon & egg baked chard dish and that looks so delicious, but I didn't want to turn on my oven. Since I had kale instead of swiss chard I just made a variation of her recipe. As Lauren of Celiac Teen put it so elegantly yesterday... it's time to play with our food. Don't be afraid to make changes, do your own thing, use the ingredients you have on hand. Have fun!

Simple Sautéed Kale & Mushrooms
an easy side dish technique

• 3-4 cups kale, torn into bite size pieces
• 1-2 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil -or- if you used bacon like we did, just use a little of the bacon grease... a little!
• salt & pepper, to taste (go easy... enjoy the flavor of those marvelous veggies!)

Directions:
In a heavy cast iron pan, or your favorite heavy skillet heat your oil until a drop of water will sizzle. Add the mushrooms & onions and sauté for several minutes until they are just slightly tender, but still have some "bite" to them. Add your kale and gently saute for about 3-4 minutes (5-10 minutes) until the kale is bright beautiful green. Serve immediately with your meal. I love using this as a base for our meals. It was excellent with eggs & bacon!

What are your favorite ways to make kale?

* This post is also shared with "A Gluten Free Holiday" hosted by Diane of The WHOLE Gang on 12/2/2010. 

Facebook & August News

A few months ago I started a facebook page for Gingerlemongirl.com. It's an active online community forum for those of us who live & eat gluten free. I love the conversations and the questions this site has inspired.

If you're a member of Facebook I'd love to have you "Like" the Gingerlemongirl.com page. I love that it's "always open" and there are always people to answer gluten free cooking & baking questions. It's a great place to get meal ideas, answers to questions about gluten free products, baking advice, and it's just a great place to meet new gluten free friends!

Also, if you read this blog via a feed reader or your email, please click through to the Gingerlemongirl.com website today. My dear friend Jennifer redesigned the header on my blog and I think it looks really great! I'd love to hear your thoughts! Please stop by Jennifer's new super cute healthy living blog, A Girl Who Love Cupcakes and send her a comment a two!

In a few weeks the Ginger Lemon Guy & I will be heading to Seattle, WA to attend the 2010 International Food Blogger's Conference. I'm very excited (and a little nervous) about this trip and I'd love to hear your recommendations for where to visit in downtown Seattle (besides the Space Needle and Pike Place Market!) I'm excited about finally meeting fellow friends & gluten free bloggers like:

• Diane of The WHOLE Gang
• Shirley of gfe-gluten free easily
• Kim of Cook It Allergy Free
• Alexa of Lexie's Kitchen
• Ali of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen
• Wendy of Celiacs in the House
• Melissa of Gluten Free for Good
• Heidi of Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom
• Jeanne of Four Chickens
• Dr. Jean of GF Doctor
• Carol of Simply, Gluten Free
• And... Shauna of Gluten Free Girl & The Chef

The best part of this trip for me will be meeting all of these fabulous & inspiring gluten free women who are making the world of gluten free living a much better place!  We will be treated to an amazing gluten free meal on Sunday afternoon prepared by none other than the Chef himself.

The conference is including guest speakers such as Morgan Spurlock, Amy Sherman, Kristine Kidd, Diane Jacob, and many many more!

For the full IFBC itinerary, please visit here... I can't even begin to describe all of the amazing events we will be a part of!

Make sure to stop by Gingerlemongirl.com on Facebook and say hello!

Omelettes for Dinner

Today I have the privilege of sharing a recipe on Diane's wonderful blog "The W.H.O.L.E. Gang." 

One of our favorite weeknight meals is omelettes! They are quick, easy, healthy, and delicious!

The filling are never the same. Whatever veggie & protein leftovers we have available in our fridge are in the omelettes each week!

We've been lucky this summer to have a wonderful CSA to not only provide most of our produce, but our fresh eggs as well! 

If you need really great ideas on super fast & healthy dinners, please check out the recent series featured here on Gingerlemongirl.com, 30 Days Gluten Free Quick & Easy Meals. 

Please visit The Whole Gang today and leave a comment sharing your favorite omelette fillings!

What are your favorite gluten free solutions to the weeknight dinner rush? 

Homemade Coconut Milk Kefir

This week I made coconut milk kefir. If you've never heard of kefir, it's okay. Think of it as a thin yogurt with healthy strains of probiotics, which of course help encourage healthy happenings in your intestinal track. (Isn't that a fun way to put it?) If you've ever had GI issues (and if you're gluten free, there's a good chance you've had fun GI issues, yes?) you know that probiotics, especially naturally produced probiotics are a super healthy addition to your diet.

If you want the details smetails of what kefir really is, check out this article by Wikipedia. Or this article from Earth in Common.

Traditional kefir (as with most fermented milk products like buttermilk and yogurt) are made from cow, sheep, or goat's milk. Thankfully kefir will also grow in other non-dairy milks like soy and coconut. (I have read that trying to make kefir with nut milks does not work, but I haven't tried it... so if you can't have soy or coconut... I don't see why you couldn't at least try to make it with a fresh cashew milk or almond milk...)

Soy is not nice to my body, so I use coconut milk as you see in the picture above. There several different ways of making kefir. The traditional way starts with kefir "grains". Coconut milk is poured over the "grains" and left to ferment for about 24 hours and you are left with a slightly soured milk with lots of healthy probiotics. Another popular way to make your own kefir is to use a freeze-dried kefir starter that you simply mix with coconut milk that you have "pasteurized" or gently heated to kill off any bad bacteria. Once the pasteurized milk has cooled you stir in the kefir starter and then allow it to ferment for about 24 hours. When it's finished you will have a thickened slightly sour drink. In Europe it's often enjoyed alone as a beverage... for sweeter American palates it's used more in smoothies and/or mixed with fruit for a sweeter drink.

Kefir can also be used in baking when a recipe calls for an acidic liquid such as buttermilk or yogurt. Here is one recipe I've made that uses kefir.

I recently purchased some kefir grains to make future batches, but for this week I used the Body Ecology Kefir Starter. This is a great starter to use if you are dairy or casein intolerant because it's dairy free. Many brands of freeze-dried kefir starter also contain powdered dairy milk, which is great if you can have dairy. I've heard this brand is really good.

Making kefir with freeze-dried starter is very simple.




First it's best to heat the coconut milk (I used 2 (13.5 oz) cans of  regular (not lite) coconut milk) to about 160-180 degrees to make sure to kill off any bad bacteria that might be lurking in the can.




Next you allow the coconut milk to cool back down to about 75-80 degrees. This can take a while. The Body Ecology directions indicate that you don't need to heat the milk to the temperature I did. Do what works best for you. Once the coconut milk has cooled you simply whisk the kefir starter into the coconut milk. I poured the cultured milk into a large glass jar and covered it with a tea towel. Allow the kefir to sit undisturbed for 24 hours.



The resulting coconut milk kefir is slightly thick (think thin sour cream texture). Don't be surprised if you have some water at the bottom of your kefir that has separated from the thicker mixture. That's fine. Just stir it back into your kefir.



Now it's time to use that kefir. Add it to smoothies, if you enjoy the slightly soured taste, drink it alone, eat it like you would yogurt with gluten free granola on top for crunchiness, use it as a cream on raw berry blueberry pies (that was super delicious if you're wondering!)... Make sure to store your coconut milk kefir in the refrigerator.

So there you go. Easy homemade coconut milk kefir. Are you going to try it?