Shortcut for whey and Greek yogurt

Plain Nancy's Organic is a good choice

Plain Nancy’s Organic is a good choice


So the boys and I plan on making some ‘kraut this week a la lacto-fermentation. Well, rather Beans and I are gonna make it and the little Sprout will watch…enraptured by our skills, I am sure….. I don’t have enough milk right now to shake it down for its whey so I chose a cheap and easy alternative.
Taking a carton of organic plain yogurt (I use Nancy’s), I plopped the contents in some fine cheesecloth and suspended it over a stainless steel bowl for the afternoon. It’s important to use a yogurt with live probiotic cultures.

Separating the whey from the yogurt

Separating the whey from the yogurt

Once all the whey (or most) has dripped off the yogurt just pour the whey in a container and, likewise, scoop the resulting greek-style yogurt into a dish of its own.

The whey

The whey

Greek-style yogurt

Greek-style yogurt

Now, while Beans isn’t a huge fan of plain yogurt I can sweeten this stuff with stevia and fruit; super-duper thick and yummy.

And we now have some way-easy whey with which to make our sauerkraut!

Man, I love puns….

Wheat-free Eggplant Parmigiana – the kind that’s supposed to induce labor…

Wheat-Free Eggplant Parmigiana

Wheat-Free Eggplant Parmigiana


So everyone has an old wive’s tale about how to naturally induce labor. In the middle of my 39th week of pregnancy I am not above non invasive attempts to start things along by eating inordinate amounts of fresh pineapples or watching the whole Series 0ne of Downton Abbey while walking on my treadmill. Enter the Scalini’s Eggplant Parmigiana….
Scalini’s is an Italian restaurant in Georgia who’s claim to fame is an eggplant parmigiana dish they say will get labor going within 48 hours of eating. If you can’t make it physically to their restaurant they are awesome enough to post a copy of their recipe on their website. Here is their original recipe.
Because I thought their original recipe was just too much for my household, I cut it roughly in half. I also made some revisions to the ingredients to make the parmigiana wheat-free as well as choosing organic products and produce.

Scalini’s Marinara Sauce (REVISED)
1 Tbs Chopped Garlic
3 Tbs Olive Oil
1 32 oz can of Crushed Tomatoes
1 Large Yellow Onion – chopped fine
1c Fresh Italian Parsley – chopped
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1c Fresh Basil – chopped
Pinch of Rosemary
Pinch of Ground Thyme
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper

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Saute onions and garlic in olive oil for about 10 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients except the crushed tomatoes. Saute for another 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and allow to simmer for an hour.

Best marinara EVER!

Best marinara EVER!

Scalini’s Eggplant Parmigiana Recipe (REVISED)

1 Large Eggplant
1c Brown Rice Flour
2c Almond flour
1/4c “Italian Seasoning”
1/2c Romano Cheese
1/2c Parmesan Cheese
12oz Mozzarella – shredded
1c Ricotta Cheese
Marinara from previous recipe
Olive oil

Wash eggplant and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Lay out on paper towels and allow to dry out for at least an hour. Mix Italian Seasoning with almond flour. Heat olive oil in skillet. Coat slices of eggplant in rice flour, dip in egg and then coat with almond flour mixture. Fry in skillet until each side is golden brown. In a baking dish layer eggplant, cheeses and marinara until about a quarter inch from the top of pan. I had some seasoned almond flour left over so I sprinkled that on top of eggplant slices as well. Top the parmigiana off with remaining mozzarella. Bake covered at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes.

I ate this eggplant parmigiana over 45 hours ago – No sign of labor yet. However, The parmigiana is incredibly delicious and the marinara is perhaps the best sauce I’ve ever had. I may not have had my baby but I was one very satisfied pregnant lady. Nom Nom.

Easy Cake Pops

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My best friend is hosting a sprinkle for the new baby and I though I’d try my hand at making a little something special that I had never made before: Cake Pops. I know these hardly qualify as “real food” but we’ll try our hand at converting to a crunchier alternative once we get the fundamentals down! I watched about a dozen tutorials on how to do it and this is what I came up with to make it the most simple experience. I completely ruined the first half of my cake pop batch through trial and error, so it looks like there won’t be enough pops to take to the event. But, hey! I know how to do these puppies from here on out.

You need:
One boxed cake- baked
One tub of pre-made frosting
30 pop sticks
2 bags of Wilton’s Candy Melts
Piece of styrofoam
Mini ice cream scoop

Start with baking and cooling the cake.
Once the cake is completely cooled use your fingers to crumble it into a fine grain.

hand-crumbled cake

hand-crumbled cake

Next, spoon in a little less than 1/3 of the container of frosting. This is essentially two giant spoonfuls. DO NOT use too much frosting. Mix in the frosting to the crumbled cake with your fingers. It becomes a dough-like blob that you can shape.

Frosting and cake mixed

Frosting and cake mixed

Now use the mini ice cream scoop to measure out uniform amounts of the mixture. Use your hands to roll into tight, solid balls.

Cake balls

Cake balls

Melt about a quarter cup of the candy melts in a glass cup.

Candy melts

Candy melts

Melted candy

Melted candy

Dip about 3/4 of an inch of the ends of the pop sticks in the melted candy.

Pop stick dipped in melted candy

Pop stick dipped in melted candy

Insert into cake balls. Freeze for half hour. This will keep the sticks from coming out of cake balls when you candy coat them.

Cake balls with sticks

Cake balls with sticks

Melt a tall glass full of the candy melts. I did this in the microwave – took about a minute and twenty seconds. I did this in twenty second increments. I originally tried to use white chocolate chips and this was a disaster. They melted too thick and thats how I ruined half of these cake pops.
Remove cake balls from the freezer and dip one at a time in the melted candy.

Dip cake balls

Dip cake balls

Dip them down far enough in the tall cup that the candying on the stick is covered. Gently twist the cake pop as you bring it out of the melted candy. Poke the cake pop stick into the styrofoam block and allow the candy to harden. Super easy cake pops! The next time I make these I plan do do so baking a cake from scratch with Real Food ingredients and using stevia-sweetened cream cheese for the “frosting”. I’m at a loss for what to do to reduce the refined sugar content in the candy melts. I’d love to hear ideas on good substitutes!

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