Sugar-free Pineapple Upside Down Cake

"Honey, would you make me something sweet?"  Was my husbands request...  I had a whole pineapple on the counter, so why not make a pineapple upside down cake?  I wanted to make it sugar-free so I googled it.  And this is the delicious recipe I found. I added molasses to give it a brown sugar flavor...


WOW!  was how my oldest daughter described it.  Joseph thought it was great!!  and my step-dad asked me to make one for him on Wednesday...

Here is the recipe *with my additions

For the topping:

sliced fresh pineapple

4 Tbsp butter (I used coconut oil)

 1/2 cup honey (I used 1 cup)

* 2 tsp of molasses

pecans (optional, I'll use these next time)

For the cake:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup of butter or coconut oil

1/2 cup honey

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (I used coconut milk)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Melt the 4 Tbsp butter (coconut oil) in a 10 inch iron skillet, once melted add in the honey and stir until combined.  Cook a couple of minutes until the mixture is nice and bubbly.

Place the pineapple slices in pan.

Continue to cook another couple of minutes, turn the slices over, and turn off heat.  I cooked them until the honey/oil mixture was bubble and some what thickened.  If adding the pecans put them in the pan after turning off the heat.

Copmbine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium mixing bowl and set aside.  Next, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter/oil, and the 1/2 cup of honey until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs in  one at a time and then stir in vanilla.  Alternating between flour mixture and buttermilk/coconut milk, add them into creamed mixture, stirring just until combined.

Pour over the pineapple slices.

Bake for about 35  minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the sides and place a flat plat on top of the skillet, hold onto both

skillet and the plate and flip the cake onto the plate.

ENJOY! we did ;-)

 

Sugar-free Hamentashen Cookies

Thanks to my dear friend Andi at Declared unto Him

for her suggestion of replacing sugar for honey in

my dessert recipes... and I am oh so

glad I have... yummy!

Here is a sugar free recipe for Hamentatshen Cookies

My girls and Husband gave the thumb up on them.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup honey

2 eggs

6 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp vanill extract

2 tsp baking powder

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

your own filling

 (we used sugar free apricot jam) 

Directions:

1)  In a large bowl, mix together the honey and butter.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the orange juice and vanilla.  Mix in the baking powder, then gradually stir in the flour until the dough forms a ball.  Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.  Over night is better.

2)  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).  Grease cookie sheets

3)  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 in ch thickness.  Cut into 3 inch circles, I use a mason jar lid.  Place circles on the prepared cookie sheets.  Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each circ..  Pinch the sides of each circle to form a triangle, covering as much of the filling as possible.  The cookies may be frozen on the cookie sheets if desired to help retain their shape while cooking

4)  Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light golden brown.  These are best undercooked slightly.  cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy!  We did!

Sugar Free Bread Pudding

This dessert is yummy!   And it takes about 5 min

to put together then toss it in the slow cooker. Freeing

up my hands to work on other tasks, great for prep-day.

Ingredients:

8 cups of day-old bread (challah for us)

4 eggs

2 cups of milk

1/4 cup of honey

1/4 cup of melted butter

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup of raisins or dried cranberries

Directions:

Place cubed bread in a 3 qt. slow cooker.  In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, honey, butter, vanilla and nutmeg.  Stir in raisins/cranberries.  Pour over bread; stir gently.  Cover and cook on low for 3 hours or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Yields 5-6 serving.

I did double the 'pudding' ingredients because we like 

extra pudding with our dessert.  I also added a small amount

of stevia, just to make sure it was sweet enough.  I also set my

slow cooker on high because our sc low is a 'keep warm' setting.

Josef loved, loved, loved it!  He is a 'bread pudding' man and 

this recipe got a great big thumbs up from him.

 

Sugar Free Berries Cobbler

Our Family has gone sugar-free since mid October.  At first it wasn't easy, but as we learned how sugar is toxic to our bodies it has become easier.  Yah gave me an idea on how to deal with temptation at the beginning of our life change, when the sweet called out to me I just reminded myself it was poison, no matter how it looked smell or how I remembered how it tasted, poison was poison... this helped not only me but my girls as well.  We have tried several sugar-free desserts some good others will never be tried again.  One we found that that has turned into a favorite because it's sweet and EASY. 

Sugar-Free Berries Cobbler

1 cup of self-rise flour
1 cup of butter (we use 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup of coconut oil)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of Splenda
bag of frozen mixed berries

Mix the first four ingredients together, dump into a casserole dish.  Sprinkle the berries with some stevia or splenda, mix and dump on top of the batter mix.  Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.  Serve warm or cold.

I'm not thrilled about using splenda but until I can figure out how to subsitute a cup of splenda with stevia we'll be using splenda (for this dessert only) with that said does any one have an idea how to do this?  Stevia would only have to take maybe 1-2 tsp (if that much) to sweeten this dish.  I'm concerned about the volume lost about a whole cup of volume lost. It would be a great help if anyone has idea's on this and would be willing to share them with me ;-) 

Shabbat Shalom

Surger Free Peanut Butter Cups

I came across this recipe for sugarless chocolate peanut butter cups

at At Home with Kare these have to be the best tasting

sugarfree candy I've yet had!!  My girls love them

AND they're good for them!!

Since cutting out sugar, something we loved to 

indulge in, we've had to find other 

sweets to enjoy.  We were buying Paul Newman's

Peanut Butter Cups at $2.98 a package which had

three little cups in it.  And the taste...

well let's say it tasted like sugar free!!

Now, I can make a tray of 24 for under $5.00, all organic,

sugar free, and DELICIOUS!!

I highly recommend if you have a sweet tooth for chocolate

and peanut butter to hop on over to Kare's

and try out her recipe, you'll be licking your fingers and thanking me

for sharing, oh and of course without

Kare sharing I'd still be eating Newman's horrible

peanut butter cups... much love and kiss

to Kare!!

 

Delicious Sugarless Chocolate Candies

I have to share this recipe I found,

it's raw, rich, delicious, nutty, chocolaty and

sugar free!!

I've been in search for a sweet chocolaty

candy or cookie that is sugarless and

have tried several recipes and to tell the

truth I nearly gave up till I tried this one

from Raw LouLou

it's a raw chocolate and it's worth the try,

believe me this one is good!!

Of course I tweaked it a bit, I'm  not

 a lover of carob (yuck, yuck, and yuck!!)

so here is what I did:

First I didn't want to make a whole batch and

end up dumping in the trash so I reduced it down.

3 1/2 T of Coca

2 1/2 T of Carob (this was my change)

3 T of Honey

3 T of warm coco oil

pour some chopped pecans in didn't measure (this was my addition to the recipe)

I followed her instructions for mixing, then poured or

rather spooned the chocolate mix into

a candy mold.  Placed in the refrigerator till

they were hard.  Popped them out and

placed them in an air tight container, 

back into the fridge...

I ended up with 25 pieces of candies... that didn't

last the day.  My family loves them.... and I did too!!

now I have a raw chocolate candy for my chocolate craving!!

I've since made this recipe several times.

I might go ahead and make a full batch or at least 

half a batch according to her measurements.

Enjoy!!

Yom Teruah Dinner

Leviticus 23:24

“Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you have a rest, a remembrance of blowing of trumpets, a set-apart gathering.

Thought I'd share this years Yom Teruah Dinner with ya'll:

Apple-Crusted Salmon found @ Whole Foods Market

Garlic Broccoli found @ All Recipes

Green olives stuffed with Garlic

Black olives

Cinnamon & Spice Challah found @ Look Who's Cookin

Grape Juice

and for dessert:

Apple caramel pie topped with home made vanilla whipped cream
(everything from the pie crust to the caramels are made from scratch)
Apple Caramel Pie found @ All Recipes

Caramels found @ All Recipes

We would like to spend Yom Teruah outside perhaps at a near by part,

sounding the shofar, singing, reading and praying.

Rejoicing in our Creator and his Messiah!!

Broccoli Avocado Salad

OK, I'm love'n RAW BROCCOLI!!

I was craving broccoli but didn't want to juice it, so I did a google search
on broccoli salad, the results were very few RAW salads. There was a couple
I found but I didn't have allthe ingredients, so, I improvised (this is the story of my life)
I used what I had and someof what they called for. This is what I came up with:

1 cup of broccoli, chopped fairly small

2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

1 mashed avocado

2 tablespoons of cilantro

squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon

1/8-1/4 teaspoon of cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

Toss well, eat and enjoy...I know I did!

extra note:

instead of throwing away the stringy stems

of the broccoli just peel away the outer

layer of the stems and chop up the remaining

inner stem, its soft yet firm and has lots

of nutrients your body will love.

Classic Kale and Avocado Salad

I'm loving this Spanish rice dish and Blended Salads are wonderful, but is there more?
Yes, I found this wonderful tasty salad (by the way I am not a salad lover unless it has cheese and tons of dressing; not healthy!) Here a a great video I found.


I just finished eating a bowl of this, it was so delicious!! Who would have thought of making salad out of KALE?? Not me! But I'm glad I came across this recipe!!

Paul Nison, Torah & Raw Food

Thanks to Lina @ A set apart life blog I learned about Paul Nison who is a Raw Food advocate but what's so wonderful about this is he bases his teaching on Torah AND he's a follower of Yahshua to boot!! I've been watching his video's and ordered one of his book. I got this BRAND NEW book for FIVE BUCKS yes, you read it right $5.00!! The book was actually a little over six bucks plus shipping and handling. I had an amazon coupon for five dollars...so what a blessing!!

I haven't read it yet just paged through, I'm so looking forward to having a quiet time so I can devoure it! I have already tried one of his recipes. I didn't get it out of the book though it is in there, I actually got it off of one of his video's here is the recipe:

BLENDED SALAD

1/2 cucumber

couple handfuls of spanich leaves

1 celery stick (stock)

1 garlic clove

1 tomatoe

1 avocado

squeeze 1/2 of lemon juice

things I added:

3 tblsp of ground up flax seed

1 tsp of virgin olive oil

blend all together less the avocado peel & seed

I had to add just a bit of water because it was really thick, but OH MY GOODNESS!!

This was the best stuff I have ever tasted!! I've been juicing now for about a month and NOTHING, I mean NOTHING compaires to this!! If you try nothing else RAW you have to try this. I'm gonna make his Spanish rice out of a head of califlower...I know it's gonna be GOOD!

If you want to watch some of Paul's video here is his website. You can also go to youtube and

search Paul Nison and come up with Lots of his video. I think the one with this recipe on it

was called Simple Recipes. Anyway here is a BIG HUG for my little Sister Lina

{{{{{{{Lina}}}}}}}

for sharing such a wonderful resource.

Hot Cup of.....

Garlic, lemon, and honey to kill a cold...thanks to Candy Jane @ EarthHeartWho shared her garlic tea that kicks

a winter cold.

yes, garlic! Just crush about

six cloves of garlic, toss

in an empty mug. Add some boiling

water and let it steep

for ten minutes.

Add some honey for sweetness

squeeze some fresh lemon juice enough
for your own taste and enjoy sipping on a tea

that is working for you.
When the mug is empty just plop those

garlic 'jewels' to quote Candy into
your mouth and chew them up, swallow,

and if you like, brush your teeth afterward.
I know you'll smell like garlic

but hay, look at it like this,
would you rather have people
avoid you because you smell like garlic
or

to have them avoid
you because your sick?
Me, I don't mind smelling like garlic
if it means I'll suffer less or not
at all with a cold!

ahchoo!

:-D

Brown Sugar Recipe

Today is Friday so I'm baking Challah Bread, the recipe calls

for 1/3 of brown sugar, eeks, I don't have brown sugar

and I don't have a car to run to the store...that's ok I'll

walk up the street to the Dollar General a pick up a bag...

it's raining...sigh...what to do...think...think...ok

I'll just sweek he recipe and add white sugar...no

wait I wonder if I can make brown sugar :-D

I just googled 'brown sugar recipe' and

yep it's there and here is

the recipe:

1 cup of white sugar

1-2 table spoons of molasses

mix well

That's it!

I only used 1/3 of white sugar

1 tsp molasses!

This is great because I use brown sugar all the time, it's expensive

at the store but now I can just whip it up

as needed at the fraction of the cost!!

Wheat Challah Bread

Ok, so this is the third week of my give-away and this is

a post from April 24, 2009.

The gift is related to this post in some way...

remember if you guess what the give-away gift

is I will put your name in the drawing twice...

Come give it a try... We are trying to change the things we eat. We have already added more water, no margarine, and increase veggies & fruit.

We no long buy bread from the stores but I make it. About four loves a week. I was making

it from all purpose white, then read an article that called the white

flour The White Killer...ooh...uhh...! My thoughts exactly!

So we are slowly changing over to whole wheat by first making

the loaves with 1/2 white 1/2 wheat flour. Once the girls are

accustom to the taste I will slowly add more wheat and less white.

Here is the recipe, it was my white flour recipe

I just altered it a bit.

mix together and allow to proof for 10 min:

• 2 pkges of active yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 TSP of honey

mix together with mixer:

• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c of butter (soften)
• 1 tsp salt (optional)

then add:

• the yeast mixture
• 3 c of whole wheat flour

mix with mixer for 3 minutes. Then mix with wooden spoon

• 3 c white flour. Add this a little at a time, stirring and mixing. I end up using my hands the last bit of flour.

Turn out on kneading surface and kneed for 6-8 minutes till dough becomes smooth. Oil the sides and bottom of a large bowl and place the dough in side. Turn the dough once to allow oil to cover the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for about an hour to double in size.

Once it has double in size, punch down, cut in half, braid and place each Challah loaf in a pan. Again let rise for an hour or till it doubles in size.

Take an egg and beat it adding a little water, mix well. Brush on the Challah bread just before baking. Sprinkle with your favorite topping, kosher salt, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds. It's also nice just plain.

I cook mine at 300 degrees for about 30 min. It's done when you can tap it with a knife and it sound hollow.

Enjoy!

Second week's give away celebration

Ok, so this is the second week of a one month give- way celebration. Here is a post from last November the 24th. This week's give away is related to this post and the above clipart in some way. Take a guess at what it could be and your name will be added to the drawing twice. Oh one more thing, all the names from last weeks drawing (with the exception of the winner) will be put back into the drawing this week along with the newer names of this week...come on just make a guess...double your chances of winning!

Changes

We are making some changes...I just learned that toothpaste, laundry detergent, fabric softener, bars of soap, and deodorant all can and most likely do contain pork fat. Now, this presented a problem for our family since we do not consume pork or pork product and we certainly do not want to clean our bodies, teeth, or clothes in the stuff! So, after a little searching I found several recipes for these cleaners: And am praising Yah for them! He will never ask you to do something without giving you the means to do it...He is worthy to be praised! HalleluYah!

*Toothpaste~
1/4 cup of Baking Soda
2 packet of Steava (natural sweetener)
2T of coconut oil
Blend well and dab onto your tooth bush. My girls really like it ;-D

*Laundry Detergent (this site has lots of recipes)
Hot water1/2 cup
Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/3 bar Soap (grated)
In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat.
In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well.
Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel).

*Fabric Softener~
1 part Vinegar
1 part Baking Soda
2 parts Hot Water
Oil of Essence your choice of fragrance (I didn't have to purchase EO because I filled a large vinegar jar full of orange peels with ground cloves and let it set for about 7 days...ummm smells mighty good!)
Place a pail large enough to hold double the amount of ingredients in the kitchen sink or bathtub. Mix the baking soda and water in the pail, stir till the powder is dissolved. Then add the vinegar. Remember that baking soda and vinegar reacts with fizzing, so use a big pail to account for this. Once it’s stopped fizzing, pour into clean bottles, cap, then use 1/4 cup per rinse cycle.
Updated Info: The baking soda won’t be completely dissolved, just shake the bottle to mix the batch up before adding to the rinse cycle.

*Dryer sheets~
buy a bag of inexpensive sponges at the dollar store soak them in the home made fabric softener wringe them out just a bit and toss it in the dryer instead of dryer sheet. I use two sponges per load :-D

*Bars of Soap~ (for now we will purchase our herbal natural veg base soaps)
This site has the generic recipe I'll be using, however I want to research
a little bit more, so that I'm comfortable with what I'm doing.
Here is another site I found for glycerin soaps, again I'll have
make sure the glycerin is either a veg or beef base.

*Deodorant~
1/4 cup of baking soda
1/4 cup of corn starch
few table spoon of coconut oil
an empty deodorant container
Just blend together and pack into the container
I found this recipe at this site which I visit nearly everyday

11/24/08

Foam Soap Recipe

Making foam soap for pennies...

After your store bought foam pump liquid soap dispenser is empty, fill it with a few drops of dish soap, about 1-2 table spoons of alcohol, and water. Whoa la...foam soap!

Sourdough Starter II

Well it's been well over a week since I embarked on trying to grow my own SD starter and it only showed life one time, it smelled terrible, and was very watery. I decided after reading several articles written by 'Mike', to toss my dead starter and try his method. His method differed from the previous one in two ways: first, he used whole wheat flour and secondly he suggested feeding the starter every 12 hours, which leads me to believe that maybe my starter 'starved to death' ! :-( yikes!

Oh, I also changed the type of container I was using, decided to use a ceramic bowl, it was easier to stir the starter and pour in the feeding.

So, I grabbed my bowl, added 1/4 cup of warm spring water and 1/4 cup plus 2 tblsp of whole wheat flour, mixed, and covered with plastic wrap for about 12 hours. When I checked it it had a few bubbles on top so I waited a few more hours, still just a few bubbles. I fed it 1/4 cup of warm spring water and 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of whole wheat flour, covered it, and let it sit for 12 hours. When I checked on it, wow, it was alive! It had doubled in size and was bubbly!

Yeah! So, per Mike's instructions I discarded 1/2 of the starter and then fed it again.

That was last night at 10:30. I'm getting ready to feed it again in about an hour and a half.

I checked on it, it's bubbly and is starting to have a beer like smell...this is good, it means its growing good things! I'm so excited about this! I highly recommend the 'Sourdough Home' website for those of us who are new to this.

Remember my first starter....it looks like there could
bubbles forming but no I had just fed it so
there was air bubbles from the stirring

And this is a picture of what a living sd starter looks like...
beautiful isn't it :-D

the picture is kind of dark, I'll try to replace it latter when I have time.

Sourdough Starter

I'm trying my hand at sourdough bread so I'm attempting to grow a starter.

Yesterday was my second day and when I awoke it had doubled in size and

was bubbly, looking very alive! Then I fed it, and it deflated

and looked very dead. I had two batches so I threw away the

one and kept the other, just to see what it would do. And it did

NOTHING!

So, this morning I thought I would do a little research before throwing it

out. And I came across a very informative site. The SourDoLaday explained

that after the second or third day the mixture will come alive and

bubble up, hey that's what happened to mine! Then it will

suddenly go flat and appear to be dead, yes, that's exactly

what happened! She continued to share how if you

would WAIT in about 4-5 days the mixture will take on

a new look and become frothy again. I'm glad I waited and searched

before throwing out this last batch.
I didn't take pics of the batches when they were

bubbling, but this is a pic of the 'lone' batch I kept,

after I fed it this morning.

I'll post again about my new 'pet' in about 4-5 days with pics to let you see whether
it took or not...until then let's just keep hoping :-D

Sugar Cookies

This recipe was taken from my favorite recipe book http://www.allrecipes.com/
I've made this several times and each time they are delicious! so I thought I would share ;-D

Ingredients:

• 1 cup margarine


• 1 cup vegetable oil


• 1 cup white sugar


• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
  
• 2 eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 4 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar


• 1 teaspoon salt


• about 1 cup extra white sugar for rolling cookies in

Direction:

• In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, oil, white sugar, and confectioner's sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour; baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until just blended. Cover and chill dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.
  
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheet/s. Roll the chilled dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in the remaining sugar. Place them 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheet/s. Press into each ball with the open end of a plastic thread spool. Dip the spool into the sugar between each cookie to prevent sticking problems.
  
  
• Bake for 8-10 minutes in the preheated oven. Do Not over bake or you will lose the delicate taste.
  

Enjoy!

Challah Bread

This is the recipe I use for our Shabbat evening dinner, my family just loves it:

• 2 pkg of yeast


• 1 cup of warm water


• 1/3 cup soften butter


• 1/4 -1/2 cup sugar ( depending on if your prefer a sweeter bread)


• 1 tsp salt


• 2 eggs


• 4-5 cups of all purpose flour


• 1 egg yolk

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

• combine warm water and yeast with 1 tsp sugar, let stand for 10 minutes till foamy.


• Mix butter, sugar, and salt.


• Add eggs one at a time.


• Add the yeast mixture.


• Add about 2-21/2 cups of flour to the above mixture and beat with a mixer on med for 3 minutes.


• Add 2-3 cups of flour enough flour to form a soft dough.


• Kneed till smooth and elastic about 6-8 minutes.


• Place in a large bowl that has been coated with oil. Coat the dough with oil. Cover with cloth and let sit in a warm place for about 1-2 hours or till it doubles in size.


• Punch down, kneed than braid and place in the pre-oiled (I use spray oil) loaf pans.


• Let sit another 1-2 hours to rise again.


• Whisk the egg yoke, and coat the loaves with the yoke. At this point you can sprinkle with anything you like, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, I use coarse kosher salt, or just have it plain.


• Place in a pre-heated oven @ 325 degrees for 30-40 minutes. When you tap the top of the loaves with the end of a knife they should have a hollow sound to them.


• Allow to cool some...my family likes it warm, however, it is easier to cut when it is cold.


• Enjoy!

Tweeking a recipe

So we have made up a batch of deoderant and find it's just a bit to strong for our sensitve skin ;-)
so we are tweeking it a bit and decreasing our baking soda from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup...the baking soda can be a bit too strong and actually cause a rash or redden area...we'll see how this next batch will do...