Better for You EggNog

 You know I couldn’t come off and say it’s “good” for you because then it just wouldn’t be eggnog. You know what I’m sayin’? But I did manage to make it “better” for you so you can drink it with a lot less guilt.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cups sugar (I used Coconut Sugar. It’s Low Glycemic)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups coconut milk (the refrigerated kind), divided
• 1 tablespoons rum extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• Additional nutmeg, optional

Directions

• In a heavy saucepan, whisk together eggs, sugar and salt. Gradually add 2 cups of milk. Cook and stir over low heat until a thermometer reads 160°-170°, about 30-35 minutes. This is the labor intensive part.
• Pour into a large heat proof bowl; stir in the rum extract, nutmeg and remaining coconut milk. Place bowl in the freezer for about 2 hours or until mixture is completely cool. You could put it in the fridge but if you’re like me you don’t want to wait that long. If mixture separates, process in a blender until smooth.
• When ready to serve, beat cream in a large bowl (put beaters and bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes to speed up the process) on high until soft peaks form; whisk gently into cooled milk mixture. Pour into your favorite Christmas glasses and enjoy! Sprinkle with nutmeg if desired. Yield: Approx. 7 servings.
• This could easily be doubled for a party.

Let me know if you try it and like it!
HUGS,
Kim

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Scones with Streusel Topping

I was hankering for something pumpkiny yesterday and ended up making these. I like them because they aren’t super sweet (which scones aren’t supposed to be) and they have a nice pumpkin flavor.
I’ve adapted the recipe to be GF but will you can replace the amount of flour for regular all purpose if you so choose. The rest of the recipe remains the same.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Scones with Streusel Topping
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 TBS. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin spice mix
1/3 cup coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
1/4 cup of butter, cold and cut in pieces
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, soften
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
Streusel Topping ( 1 1/2 cups of oatmeal, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 chopped walnuts and enough coconut oil to make it stick, about 1/3 cup)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place parchment paper on a large cookie sheet.
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and sugar in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in coconut oil.
In a food processor (or you can do it by hand) mix together eggs, cream cheese, and pumpkin. Add this to your flour mixture just until combined.
Drop dough onto your cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measure.
Sprinkle your streusel topping on top of each scone and bake for 15-22 minutes.
Enjoy!

Apple Sauce Cake! Gluten Free

This cake came out so moist and delicious. I had made homemade applesauce the day before and used it in this cake and let me tell you, it’s worth the little effort to make your own sauce. It was out of this world delicious.
Here is the picture I posted on FB yesterday. Everything looks so wonderful and pretty doesn’t it?

Stay tuned till after the recipe for the behind the scenes photo that should make you chuckle.
APPLESAUCE CAKE
2 eggs
2 cups unsweetened applesauce, preferably home-made
½ cup honey
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 cups brown rice flour (replace with regular flour if you aren’t GF)
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a large bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. Place your eggs, applesauce, honey and coconut oil in a blender and puree. Whisk flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a large bowl. Pour your wet ingredients into your dry and stir until combined.  Plop it into the prepared pan, smooth it out and transfer to the oven. Bake until golden brown and the cake springs back when lightly touched, 50 to 55 minutes.
3. Let cool in pan 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Okay so I happen to have been out of non-stick cooking spray so I improvised and did a oil and flour thingy. You know like back in the olden days? Yeah, now I know why they invented non stick cooking spray. *sigh*
Here’s what happened as I tried to turn it out onto the cooling rack.
Ain’t it purty?
I took a piece of the intact chunk and got the picture at the top of this post. But I thought you’d like to see that things don’t always turn out for me either.
 But regardless of what it looked like, it tasted DELICIOUS!
I hope you give it a try. Let me know if you do and how you liked it.
HUGS!
Kim

This recipe comes from the Gooseberry Patch book:The Christmas Table

Here is Delectable Baked Chicken, located on page 101

Ingredients:

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. garlic salt

2 t. paprika

2 t. salt

2 t. pepper

1-1/2 to 2 cups dry bread crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 oil

cooked rice

Place chicken in a 13”x9” glass baking pan; set aside. In a bowl combine sour cream, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Coat chicken evenly with sour cream mixture; cover and refrigerate overnight. About an hour before serving time, roll chicken in bread crumbs and return to pan. In a bowl, whisk together butter and oil; spoon half of mixture over chicken in pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Spoon remaining butter mixture over chicken. Bake 15 minutes longer, just until chicken juices run clear when pierced. Serve with cooked rice. Makes 8 servings.

Bacon + Fresh Green Beans= Happy Taste Buds!

I know that veggies are best for you and more nutritious when eaten raw. And I do eat them raw, a lot. BUT when you want your veggies cooked and you want to make them happy then look no further than bacon.

A little bacon makes my green beans happy!

Here’s what you do.

First get ya some of that good bacon without the nitrates and junk in it. I spend a little more money on the good kind because we really don’t eat a lot of bacon, but when we do I don’t want it to be full of junk.

Second, lay the whole thing of bacon out flat and cut off a 1/4 of it. Then cut it into bite size pieces in a skillet and cook until crispy.

Mmmmm…..bacon!

Next, take your cooked bacon and drain it on a paper towel until ready to use.

What your left with is what I like to call “liquid gold”. Just go a head and leave that in your pan.  If it’s any more than a TBS, I usually take a little out. Now at this point you can add a chopped onion and sauté’ it until done and THEN add the green beans, but I didn’t do that on this occasion and it was just fine. Trust me.

Don’t these green beans look good? Good but not happy.

Take those fresh green beans and throw them in the skillet with the bacon grease and a 1/3 cup of water and simmer covered for 20-25 minutes.

They should look just about like this when done. Go ahead and salt and pepper to taste. I even throw in a little garlic powder.

Now is the time to make those green beans happy. Take your cooked bacon and toss it in with your green beans and heat through.

Now THESE are happy green beans.

   

Enjoy!

You can either use the “print friendly” at the bottom of this post or click the link below.

Bacon Green Bean Recipe

Honey-Apple Tea

I just got done having myself a glass of this super yummy iced tea and I knew I had to share the recipe with you. I’m good like that. (Don’t worry, I asked for permission.)

It is absolutely perfect for this sunny and breezy Spring day. I can also see serving this at BBQ’s this Summer.

I got the recipe off of the Gooseberry Patch calendar for this month. That’s what I love about their calendars. They are not only fun to look at but they offer up a great recipe each month.

This one is definitely a keeper. You’re gonna love it, trust me.

For the teabags I used a combination of green tea and green tea with mango. It was delicious. I also cut back on the honey just a smidge because I don’t like things to sweet and I knew the unsweetened apple juice was going to add its own bit of sweetness to it.

I think I found my Spring/Summer go to, cool down drink.

I hope you ENJOY!