Category Archives: food + drink

Sep12

gluten-free dairy-free coconut-lime pound cake

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gluten-free dairy-free coconut-lime pound cake

172_original

Behold! The most beautiful cake in the world!

Or, not. But it did taste good! I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for a while — since, uh, Easter. Hence the lamb.

My mother-in-law has been eating gluten-free for a while now, and she was also avoiding dairy at the time, so I wanted to make an Easter dessert that we could all enjoy. I make a lamb-shaped pound cake every year, so this year, the lamb got the gluten-free, dairy-free treatment. (And it tasted even better than usual!)

This recipe is based on a pound cake recipe on the Land O’Lakes site, but I changed some things and it kind of became a completely different cake. A yummy cake. A beautiful cake. OK, just yummy. (At least the lamb’s head didn’t fall off.)

 

GLUTEN-FREE, DAIRY-FREE COCONUT-LIME POUND CAKE

2 cups sugar
1 cup dairy-free butter, melted (I used Earth Balance)
4 eggs
3 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla
3 cups Gluten-Free Flour Blend (I use King Arthur’s)
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
1 cup coconut milk
1 TB lime juice
zest of 1 small lime

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease pan/muffin tin and sprinkle with gluten-free flour blend. Set aside.

Combine sugar and melted butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, lime juice and lime zest; beat until well mixed.

Stir together gluten-free flour blend and baking powder in small bowl. Gradually add flour blend mixture alternately with coconut milk to butter mixture, beating at low speed until well mixed.

Pour batter into prepared pan. If using bread tins, bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. If using muffin tins, I do not have the time amount, but I’d start checking on them somewhere around 15 minutes and every few minutes after to get the right time.

 

LIME GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar
2 TB lime juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together powdered sugar, lime juice and vanilla until smooth. Use immediately.

Jul15

clean

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clean

So, I’ve finished my cleanse! I ended up doing 16 days of the full Clean cleanse (but 17 days off alcohol and 18 days off coffee — I tapered off of those early). In order to slowly add back in enough foods to eat dinner at my cousin’s upcoming wedding, I ended the cleanse a little early. You can’t not have wedding cake at a wedding, right?

The first 14 days of the cleanse were not great, I must say. The first week was quite painful, with lots of aching in my legs and lower back. I had such bad chills every night that I was sleeping with a heating pad in the middle of July. I kept finding new rashes (my wrist, my inner arm, my ankle). I tried remedies like Epsom salt baths and magnesium supplements (these two are essentially the same thing), but they didn’t really help. The second week, I just felt really foggy. The only mistake I made was accidentally eating some sweet potatoes, which I guess you are not supposed to have despite one of their lists only banning “white potatoes.” (I guess sweet potatoes create mucus?)

But days 15 and 16 were quite good, and I can see how going the full 21 days would be no problem. My constantly stuffy nose cleared up, my skin cleared up, I didn’t wake up completely exhausted like I usually do (even after a full night’s sleep), I wasn’t bloated anymore, I stopped getting daily headaches and I lost 5 pounds. I felt good enough that the idea of adding foods back in was worrisome. But I want to know which foods agree with me and which ones don’t.

So far, alcohol makes me more prone to headaches (which I knew) and dairy makes me tired, stuffy and bloated (which I suspected). Today is coffee. That’s my first macchiato up there — in my itty-bitty-kiddy handmade mug. I’m trying to switch from lattes to macchiatos in order to reduce the amount of dairy/soy I have. I don’t like almond milk in my coffee. I just finished that coffee, and I’m already feeling the tummy rumbles from that little dab of milk.

I’m also now completely wired — hence the wordiness of this post. Maybe I should have made it a single macchiato.

Jun29

decals + smoothies

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decals + smoothies

Here is a Photoshop document I put together to try out some decals on my pots. This will be an experiment! I don’t intend to use the full images. There will be lots of slicing going on. They will become less ocean and more color and line. But still ocean-y. If they work at all. We shall see.

I would like nothing more than to be transported into one of these photos right now. The beach is my happy place, and I’ve been a little crabby today. A couple days ago, I started my own version of the Clean cleanse that Blair mentions here. I’d been thinking about doing something like this ever since I had my food-allergy reaction a couple months ago. So here we go. 21 days. (roughly) No coffee, alcohol, wheat, oats, dairy, eggs, soy, or a whole list of other foods. Liquid foods for breakfast and dinner. I’ve been making my own smoothies rather than buying the expensive Clean stuff. I just stick to the Clean Elimination Diet ingredients and try to get a good number of calories and a balance of protein/fat/carbs.

After a few weeks, I’ll add things back into my diet one thing at a time and see how I feel. Maybe I will get some sort of clue about why I haven’t been feeling so great lately. If anything, it will be a good reset. That is, if I can get through the first few days. Crabby.