Honeydew Sorbet

Honeydew Sorbet

Posted on by Carie Perrino

Honeydew SorbetLeaves are changing quickly and every morning it has been getting cooler… I’m so not ready for fall yet! This summer went by so quickly, we didn’t even get to a waterpark!

In a last ditch effort to bring back summer I thought I would make a light, refreshing summer-y dessert 🙂 Ice cream is always a go to during the summer but for those of us who are lactose intolerant, ice cream isn’t always a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I crave (and eat) ice cream occasionally but its nice to eat dessert without feeling sick or having to run to the bathroom.

My honeydew sorbet is made with 3 ingredients (+ water… does that count?) and can be modified to meet your specific needs.

Honeydew Sorbet
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: ½ gallon
Ingredients
  • 5 C honeydew, diced and chilled
  • ¾ C cane sugar
  • ¾ C water
  • 1 lemon, juiced
Instructions
  1. Create a simple syrup by heating sugar and water in a sauce pan. Pour the simple syrup in a container and refrigerate to cool. You can freeze to speed up the process - make sure not to freeze the syrup.
  2. Combine the chilled honey dew and simple syrup in a blender, add juice from 1 lemon and blend until smooth.
  3. Pour the contents of the blender into your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer instructions.
  4. Freeze sorbet until solid. Before serving, take sorbet out of the freezer about 5 minutes in advance.
Notes
Nutrition information is not provided due alterations that can be made to accommodate food sensitivities.

Making sorbet

Alternatives:
Fruit – Try using cantaloupe or watermelon to make the same different versions of this sorbet.
Sweetener – you can use honey in place of cane sugar in the same quantity. Be careful if you are sensitive to fructose! Honey is 100% fructose and so is fruit 🙂 You can also try an alternative sweetener (i.e. stevia) for a low calorie version of this refreshing dessert!

 

Also try our Diary-Free Fudgesicles for another delicious summer dessert!

 

Products:

Here is another great recipe to make with this product: Roasted Almond Chocolate Ice Cream

Let us know if you tried this with a different fruit!

Enjoy!

Crusty Dutch Oven Bread

How to Make Crusty Dutch Oven Bread

Posted on by Carie Perrino

Crusty Dutch Oven BreadI found this dutch oven bread after several years of trying to perfect the art of making bread. And it truly is an art. The right amount of yeast, salt, flour and time to rise all contribute to flavor and texture of your bread. Some batches were too dense or they didn’t rise enough to look like a fancy artisan bread – more like a flat disc…

Finally, I found this recipe that is fool proof! This crusty dutch oven bread is almost impossible to screw up. It is simple – mix the ingredients together and leave it alone for about half a day. Bake it and its delicious 100% of the time.

The hardest thing about this recipe is just letting the bread sit and doing nothing!

As you could probably guess by the title, this bread is made in a dutch oven. This is the dutch oven that I use, it was a hand me down from Brandon’s mom and I make everything in it now! Bread, soups, stews, etc. Having a heavy bottom cast iron pot is great for all sorts of cooking and would be a great investment if you don’t have one already. In doing a quick google search it looks like they range in price from $25-$300+ if you want the fancy name brand Le Creuset Signature Dutch Oven.

Need something to eat with your bread? Try our 5-ingredient cauliflower soup! I like to make croutons out of my bread to add a nice crunch to this soup.

Crusty Dutch Oven Bread
 
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Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 6 C all purpose flour
  • 3 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 3 C water (warm)
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl mix together flour, salt and yeast. Pour water into bowl and mix ingredients together until incorporated. Cover bowl with a clean towel and let sit in a warm place for 15-20 hours.
  2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Add dutch oven and lid to the oven during the preheat time. You want the dutch oven heat up as well
  3. Flour your work surface and hands. With floured hands gently remove the bread dough from the bowl. The bread can be very sticky. I find that it helps to sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough, especially around the edges of the bowl so that it drops down the sides as you pick up the dough.
  4. Shape your dough into a ball and drop it into the hot dutch oven. Put the lid back on and place it in the oven.
  5. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
  6. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Notes
I have a very large (6.5Qt) dutch oven so this recipe makes a lot of bread. If you have a smaller dutch oven you can cut the recipe in half and it still works great!

**Nutrition information is not provided due alterations that can be made to accommodate food sensitivities.

 

Alternatives:
Flour – I wouldn’t get too crazy with gluten free flour blends unless you have a blend that you use as all-purpose flour. I have not had a chance to experiment with gluten free bread at this time. You can use whole wheat flour for a different flavor profile. This would be used in the same quantity.

Additions: 
If you are feeling fancy, add some spices/herbs to your bread like garlic, basil, oregano, etc!

Products:

Here are other great recipes to make with these products: Cauliflower Soup

Did you add any other flavorings? We would love to know what you tried!

Enjoy!

Shrimp Boil Foil Packets

Shrimp “Boil” Foil Packets

Posted on by Carie Perrino

Shrimp Boil Foil PacketsThis morning we woke up to a dark stormy sky to get ready to run the Terrain Race – a 5k or 10k race filled with 20+ obstacles. And today they were especially muddy obstacles! Brandon loves to run these races and is used to getting dirty but I don’t believe I have ever been so dirty in my life. Today was filled with several firsts for me.

First time running a 5k.

First time getting in a pool of water with all of my clothes on.

First time sliding down a mountain of mud into even muddier water.

2016-08-20 14.14.32

Needless to say we were both pretty tired when we got home and the last thing we wanted to do was cook/clean up dinner but eating out was not an option either!

Tonight I decided to make Cajun shrimp foil packets with the corn and red potatoes I bought from a local farm stand and it was delicious. I normally make my own spice mixes but I have to admit that tonight I used a remade cajun spice mix for ease. We don’t make cajun food often so I didn’t have a mix made.

Most of the recipes that I have seen for foil packet dinners call for them to be cooked on a grill – I think they are meant for camping trips. In our case, a grill was not happening for two reasons. A) it was raining and B) we were lazy.

Cajun Seasoning Mix
1T smoked paprika
2t garlic powder
2t kosher salt
1t ground black pepper
1t onion powder
1/2t cayenne pepper
1 1/4t dried oregano

The sausage that I bought was Aidells All Natural Cajun Style Andouille Pork Sausage which I have found to be very clean ingredients.
Ingredients: pork, water, garlic, white pepper, red pepper, black pepper, sugar, paprika, celery powder and dehydrated onion.

Shrimp "Boil" Foil Packets
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 2 andouille sausage links, thinly sliced
  • 2 ears corn, each cut into 4 pieces
  • 4 medium red potatoes, cut into even bit size pieces
  • 2 T allowed oil
  • Cajun seasoning
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425.
  2. Cut four sheets of foil, about 14-inches long. Divide shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes in equal portions on two sheets of foil in a single layer.
  3. Pour 1 T of allowed oil over each of the packet contents and sprinkle cajun seasoning.
  4. Cover with other two sheets of foil and fold all sides to seal the packets closed.
  5. Place foil packets in oven and cook for 25-30 minutes.
  6. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition information is not provided due alterations that can be made to accommodate food sensitivities.

 

Alternatives:
There are always substitutions that you can make in order to still enjoy the foods that you love! Here are a few substitutions that you can make in this recipe.

Oil – choose a mild oil that you can tolerate that doesn’t contribute a strong flavor.
Examples: olive oil, unflavored coconut oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil

Seasonings – If you cannot tolerate seasonings in the cajun mix or do not have it salt and pepper always work!

 

Our cajun seasoning would be great on this One Dish Wonder chicken dinner!

 

Leave a comment below, we would love to know what you think!

Enjoy!

5-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup

5-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup

Posted on by Carie Perrino

5-Ingredient Cauliflower SoupGrowing up my dad would always make soup with the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers or after having a roast chicken for dinner. They were always so good! I was intimidated by making soups but one day I just decided to jump in and try it out. At first I made a green chicken chili and then I royally screwed up a black bean chili (who knew a whole can of ancho chiles could be SOO spicy… whoops!)

There has been a big kick with cauliflower lately. Roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower “mashed potatoes”. Cauliflower pizza crust. etc. etc. etc. Well you should try my cauliflower soup! I wish I could get Brandon (remember.. the veggie hater) to even give it a try but because he knows the ingredients he won’t even give it a shot.

I like to cut up all of the ingredients first so that I can throw them all in the pan at the right time. After the soup cooks for about 20-25 minutes you will need to blend the soup so your cuts don’t have to be beautiful but they should be relatively uniform so that they cook at the same pace. It is not good to have some super mushy and others raw… been there, done that!

 

Heat 1/2 T of the oil of your choice in a heavy pot/dutch oven. For this recipe I would use a mild flavored oil: olive oil, unflavored coconut oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, corn oil.

Brown garlic and onion in the pot. This process takes about 5-7 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Browning the onion and garlic gives the soup an additional depth of flavor.

Once brown, add broth and chopped cauliflower. I prefer to use my own broth if I have some available but in a pinch I do keep some clean broths on hand.

Here a couple of brands that I like:
–Swanson Chicken Cooking Stock: chicken stock, salt, carrots, cabbage, onions, celery, celery leaves, parsley
–Progresso Vegetable Stock: water, celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, salt, parsley, leek, sugar, garlic, thyme, bay leaves

The Progresso brand is not approved for the initial phases of the LEAP diet but is a great clean broth if you are past phase 5 or not following the LEAP diet!

After the soup contents are soft add everything to a blender and puree until creamy. I had to do this in batches because my blender is not big enough to hold all of the soup. If you have an immersion blender, this would be the perfect time to use it. When everything is blended pour back into the pot and heat back up to serve!

I enjoy croutons with my puree soups so I made some homemade croutons with crusty dutch oven bread. The soup is also great with cut up scallions.

 

5-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup
 
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Easy 5 Ingredient Cauliflower Soup that the pickiest of eaters will enjoy!
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • ½ T oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 head cauliflower, chopped
  • 32 oz clean broth or homemade broth - chicken or vegetable
  • 1 tsp salt
Instructions
  1. In dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook until slightly browned, about 5-7 minutes.
  2. Add broth and cut up cauliflower. Bring to a boil and cover. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until cauliflower is softened.
  3. In batches, pour contents of pot in blender. Blend until smooth. Continue until whole pot is smooth.
  4. Pour each batch back into dutch oven. Add salt and stir.
  5. Heat soup and serve with sliced green onions or homemade croutons.
Notes
Nutrition information is not provided due alterations that can be made to accommodate food sensitivities.

Products:


Here are other great recipes to make with these products: Crusty Dutch Oven Bread and Zucchini Pizza Bites

What’s your favorite homemade soup?

Enjoy!

Thick Crust Pizza

Homemade Thick Pizza Crust

Posted on by Carie Perrino

Thick Crust PizzaWho doesn’t love pizza? Brandon and I like to keep frozen pizza crusts in the freezer for those days when we just don’t feel like cooking! When I was going through my elimination diet one of the foods I had to trial was wheat. Through this I discovered that I can tolerate wheat which was such a relief!

There is such a stigma against wheat/gluten these days and a lack of understanding of why it is necessary for some people to cut out. What most people don’t know is that by cutting out gluten for a long period of time when it is not necessary your body starts to have a difficult time breaking it down when you add it back in. If you can tolerate gluten why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of that?

This recipe makes 2 thick crust 12-inch pizzas. Of course your could always divide it into 3 thin crust or even 4 individual pizzas if you and your family like different toppings.

The easiest way to make pizza dough is of course in a stand mixer with a hook attachment but you could always make it the old fashioned way (with your hands).

Homemade Thick Crust Pizza
 
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Author:
Serves: 2 pizzas
Ingredients
  • 4C all-purpose flour
  • 1T + 1t active dry yeast
  • 1T + 1t sugar
  • 2t salt
  • 1T + 1t oil
  • 12oz warm water
  • 1t oil
Instructions
To make in stand mixer:
  1. Place flour in mixer bowl and create a well.
  2. Fill well with yeast, sugar, salt, 1T + 1t oil, and water.
  3. Attach dough hook to mixer and turn mixer on low until ingredients are combined (about 3 minutes)
  4. Turn mixer on medium speed and knead for 5-10 minutes until ball forms, push flour down as needed.
To make by hand:
  1. Place flour into large bowl and create a well.
  2. Fill well with yeast, sugar, salt, 1T + 1t oil, and water.
  3. Stir with spoon until combined (you may need to use your hands).
  4. Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes by hand until ball forms.
Once you have the dough ball:
  1. Coat dough ball with 1t oil and cover with clean, dry towel.
  2. Place in warm place away from drafts until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.
  3. Turn dough out on floured surface and punch down to remove excess air.
  4. Divide dough into 2 pieces.
  5. Roll out each piece into 12in pizza.
To make right away:
  1. Top with pizza sauce and your favorite toppings!
  2. Bake at 400 for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are brown and bottom is fully cooked.
To save for later:
  1. Pre-bake crust on pizza pan for about 5 minutes at 500 degrees until slightly brown and bottom is fully cooked.
Notes
Nutrition information is not provided due alterations that can be made to accommodate food sensitivities.

 

Alternatives:
There are always substitutions that you can make in order to still enjoy the foods that you love! Here are a few substitutions that you can make in this recipe.

Sugar – I didn’t specify the type of sugar because you can use cane sugar or beet sugar.
Oil – choose a mild oil that you can tolerate that doesn’t contribute a strong flavor to the pizza crust.
Examples: olive oil, refined coconut oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil

 

Thick Crust Pizza 1

 

Give it a shot and make your own pizza crust! Not only is it better than ordering out but it has minimal ingredients and no preservatives 🙂

Products we use:

Here’s another great recipes to make with your stand mixer and smart oven: Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

We make pretty traditional pizza. What are your favorite toppings?

Enjoy!