GAPS Gharam Crackers! (Gluten, dairy, grain and egg free)

After an exceptionally long hard summer this yr for all of us due to my husbands busy summer schedule we are all overflowing with excitement that we will soon get to take a family camping trip!!!! If feels like we've been waiting forever to have some family time together and can hardly count the days fast enough until we get to go :)

As I've been planning, making lists and thinking mostly about what food to bring I just could hardly imagine a camping trip without s'mores. I have a GAPS legal marshmallow recipe we've used for roasting and the chocolate is easy but had not yet played with any graham cracker recipes. I'm delighted to say that the following recipe is as close to perfect as I can imagine. I am so excited about it I can hardly wait to make a cheesecake with a real graham cracker crust!! That will have to wait until after camping though ;)

Here's what I did....

mix together:
 4 cups almond meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bkng soda
1/2 cup coconut oil (I think butter would work if one were allergic to coconut oil but maybe decrease the 
     salt a bit if using butter)
1/3 ish cup honey (or to taste)
6 TBLS cinnimon

Press and/or roll dough onto a parchment paper covered, flat, baking sheet to about 1/8" thickness (if rolling you will want to cover dough with parchment paper on top before rolling or it will stick terribly to your rolling pin). Score into squares and prick with fork and bake at 350 until edges turn brown. Remove from oven and cut into squares, let cool, if any are still soft or chewy, dehydrate until all the moisture is gone and they are nice and crispy (if you don't own a dehydrator you could do this in your oven on its lowest setting). My poor baking sheets are pretty warped so my crackers weren't as evenly rolled as I would have liked and some of the thicker spots needed a bit of dehydrating. I'd imagine if you had nice flat bkng sheets and your dough was evenly spread the need for dehydrating would be eliminated.

They were super easy, the kiddos love them and we will have GAPS legal s'mores for our camping trip :)

Super moist and Yummy Chocolate Cake With Rich Chololate Frosting (Grain free with diary free options, GAPS legal)

My sweet Levi's third Birthday was last week and I made for him what I think is the most perfect chocolate cake ever and its even GAPS legal. I was (am) so impressed with this one I had to share it with you. I wish so much I could post a picture for you!! I will post one as soon as I am able!

1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil if you can't have butter) 

4 cups white beans (soaked and well cooked)

2 big splashes of vanilla

about 3/4 cup strongly brewed coffee

10 eggs

4 tsp baking soda

about 1 cup honey (or a combination of honey and stevia extract to taste which is what I did)

1 1/2 cup cocoa powder

about a tsp salt (I used Himalayan)

I put everything in the vita-mix and mixed until it was well blended scraping the sides as needed. You could use a mixing bowl and mixer if you ran the beans through a food processor first and you might want to melt the butter if you do it this way too or at least make sure its very soft. An immersion blender would work as well you just need to make sure the beans are completely pureed.

Pour batter into 2 well greased (coconut oil or butter) and floured (coconut flour) round cake pans (or square or 1 sheet cake pan or alternately you could make cupcakes too...) and bake at 350 until done (I know that's not very helpful, sorry) I just bake it until I can smell it them I check it to determine how much longer it needs after that.  Let cool and frost. 

My very favorite chocolate frosting is not GAPS legal and I have to admit that I do cheat on birthdays and use it anyway but I'll share a legal one too for those who are more disciplined than I or who need a dairy free frosting.

Best Ever Chocolate Frosting (with Dairy)

1 c Heavy Whipping cream (raw is of course best if you have access to it)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup honey

Good splash vanilla

Beat all together until thick and fluffy. Make sure cake is completely cooled before frosting!!

Chocolate Frosting (Dairy Free)

1 c cream taken from top of canned coconut milk (Native Forest Brand). Its 

   helpful to put the can in the fridge until chilled before opening and 

   removing the cream

1/2 c cocoa powder

Honey and stevia extract (vanilla flavored is best) to taste (I prefer more 

   stevia than honey or all stevia in this version of the frosting) 

Good splash of vanilla

Optional is a couple pinches of pumpkin pie spice 

* This serves as a lovely mousse also ;)

Beat until well mixed, thick and fluffy. Again its very important that the cake is completely cooled before frosting!!

Mexican Lasagna (Grain Free) and DIY Taco Seasoning

This is a super easy yummy dinner. This will make one large casserole or two 9x13 casseroles)

Brown 5 lbs hamburger (or 5 lbs hamburger plus one pound pureed liver mixed in. Also you can sub some of the hamburger for grated dried summer squash if you like. I don't like to freeze my excess summer squash so I grate it and dry it in the dehydrator. It is great to have on hand for soups stews casseroles.... It is a good ground beef extender.)


with one large onion and 3-4 large garlic cloves

Season to taste with Taco seasoning (see below for recipe)


You'll need 8-10 grain free Tortillas (I use this recipe here. These are a staple in our home that I try to always have on hand in the freezer ready for use, we use them in all kinds of recipes)

2 quarts tomatoes I use home canned but diced fresh or store bought in a BPA free can will work the same. (Drain most of the liquid, if using fresh you will have excess liquid in your casserole but it won't effect the flavor and personally I don't mind it, sometimes I'll drain it off and add it to a soup later.


about two cups?? yoghourt cheese (or cream cheese)


1 can green chillies (or more, I'd use two if I were making this for my husband and I only, but two is too much for the kids)


grated cheddar cheese (about six cups??) (a bit of Parmesan mixed in is good too)


green onion and cilantro

Sour cream and/or guacamole for garnish 


spread a nice layer of yoghourt cheese on each "tortilla" and spread the green chillies on top of the yoghourt cheese. 

In your casserole dish (or dishes) layer the meat mixture, prepared tortillas, cheese and tomatoes. Top the last layer with cheddar cheese and garnish with green onions. bake until its bubbly, hot all the way through and the cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream, guacamole and fresh cilantro on top.

To make your own taco seasoning mix together:

4 T chilli powder 
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
2 t paprika
2 T ground cumin
2 T coriander
1 T plus 1t good salt (I prefer Himalayan)
1T plus 1 t black pepper
1 t dried oregano *I prefer to omit this ingredient and add oregano essential oil to whatever it is I'm cooking bc the flavor is so much better but if you don't have oregano oil on hand to use then add the dried to your seasoning mix.  

Store in a jar to have on hand whenever you need it.

White Bean and Chicken Stew

This is the perfect winter comfort food, but we like it so well we eat it throughout the year and unfortunately even though its June, here in Central Oregon it feels like "soup weather" today (personally though, I think any weather is soup weather).

To make this simply throw all the ingredients in the crock pot and let it cook all day.

From experience I can tell you it is crucial that you remember to both turn on AND plug in the crock pot in order to come home to cooked meal, oh yes and putting the lid on the crock pot is crucial too ;) 

3-4 cups white beans that have been soaked overnight in water with a splash of whey in it (whenever I soak beans I always soak as many as I can at once then I freeze the soaked beans in four cup packages so I always have soaked beans ready to use.)

3-4 lbs uncooked organic pastured chicken thighs (boneless is nice if you access to good boneless chkn thighs, however bc I prefer to use the meat we raise and I've no clue how to de-bone a chicken, I have made this with thighs with the bones in. It's really not a big deal for our family to pick the bones out once its cooked and I figure it adds to the nutritional quality of the meal to have them in anyway.)

5-6 cups homemade chicken broth

1 can green chillies (from BPA free cans) 

3 large cloves of garlic crushed

1 large onion diced

About 1/4 tsp cayenne (adjust according to how hot your family likes their food)

1 good tsp paprika

1 heaping tsp coriander

2 tsp cumin

2-3 drops oregano essential oil

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

about 1 tsp sea salt

 

We garnish this with any combination of the following; finely chopped cabbage, fresh cilantro, diced onion or green onion,  diced avocado, sour cream, cheddar cheese and sometimes some fresh diced up tomatoes too :)