These... are happening again. If there was ever any doubt, food can be downright delicious! This is true even if, or perhaps especially if, you are limited to a restricted diet. I view my restrictions as a license to be creative in the kitchen and embrace food I enjoy!

Ingredients:

approx 8 medium red potatoes*
coconut oil
3-4 medium onions, chopped
sea salt or rock salt
almond butter
shredded coconut
maple syrup
chipotle powder
optional: juice of 1 lime

*many people prefer russet, but I use red, because they are healthier and, in my opinion, still delicious.

Directions:

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. Stab your potatoes and lather them in coconut oil. Bake for about an hour.


Sauté onions in coconut oil on medium or lower heat until just beginning to brown. Set aside.

Remove potatoes from oven. When sufficiently cool, halve the potatoes and scoop out the flesh, leaving 1/4" of flesh on the skins.

Coat insides with coconut oil. Bake for 10 minutes skin-down, then 10 minutes skin-up.

Sprinkle salt into skins. Distribute onions into each skin. Spread almond butter over onions, but not too generously (it has a sticky texture). Sprinkle coconut on top, and drizzle maple syrup. Add a few drops of freshly squeezed lime juice if you prefer to. Dust the top with chipotle powder. Bake for another 2 minutes and serve immediately. Serves 4-6.

Variations: Try adding slivered almonds. Substitute peanut butter in a pinch (natural peanut butter!). Sauté some chopped leafy greens with the onions. Sauté a chopped apple with the onions.

Food Storage Applicability: If you properly store your onions and potatoes, this one is a great food storage recipe! Stir your almond butter before use for best results.

Word of Wisdom: This recipe is heavier on the fats and not as nutritionally dense. It also features maple syrup, which I try to use sparingly. There are a lot of misconceptions about the appropriate amount of fat in one's diet. The fats used in this recipe are healthy fats. Go with what your body is telling you. If you have been eating salad all day, your body probably needs some fats. Plan your meals with an awareness of your total intake. Listen to your body, exercise moderation, and food like this can be part of an overall healthy diet. This recipe is Word of Wisdom appropriate.

Gluten and Corn Free: This recipe should be safe!  A reminder to make sure your bakeware is pristine to avoid cross-contact with glutenous or corn-containing crumbs that may remain from previous baking.

I thoroughly enjoyed this appetizer. What a blessing it is that we can enjoy so many foods! This recipe almost didn't happen today. Here is a special behind-the-scenes look at today's recipe, brought to you by motherhood:

... yes, that is almond butter. Cheers!

I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful Sunday with your family. At Church we talked about family history. I adore family recipes, which poses a challenge for me since most family recipes now require some serious substitutions for me. I wonder what it would be like to taste food prepared from scratch by the early pioneers before the days of genetically modified wheat and synthetic preservatives. Here's to creating new traditions as we look forward to our future of family meals and raising healthy children.

One of the best things about autumn is that the vegetables taste like dessert. I have made a good few variations of this wonderful baked squash and am yet to find it to be anything other than excellent. As a bonus, it is very filling! Maybe it's because I'm a mom, but I love leftovers. In fact, I love leftovers so much, I doubled this recipe yesterday. When you have a food intolerance, having prepared food on hand is such a blessing.

Ingredients:

1 acorn squash
1 cup gluten-free oat flour*
1 cup gluten-free rolled oats*
2/3 cup dried barberries, currants, or raisins**
2/3 tsp cardamom
1 tsp nutmeg
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp honey***
1-2 tsp coconut oil (optional, for a softer stuffing)
1/3 cup water
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar or juice of half a lime

*Oats do not contain gluten, but most oats are processed on the same equipment as wheat and are not safe for persons who cannot have gluten. I used Only Oats brand, which processes their oats in a gluten free environment.
**Barberries are considered a health food and are a great source of Vitamin C. They also improve immune function. In culinary use they are quite tart, almost lemony. Barberries grow naturally in Alberta and can be wild-harvested. If you don't have barberries, currants or raisins would work great. As currants and raisins are sweeter, cut the honey and use more lime to maintain the sweet-sour balance.
***Go with raw, unpasteurized honey and make sure you speak directly with the supplier. Honey harvested where bees have access to corn fields leads to problems for corn intolerant people. I love buying my honey at the farmer's market. Pasteurized honey has lost its health benefits and may contain corn syrup.

Serves 2

Variations: Try adding chopped apples, freshly squeezed orange juice, chiffonaded mint, other dried fruit, seeds, or chopped nuts. Try it with curry powder and shredded coconut in place of the cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Try it with chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit, minced citrus peel, grated ginger, nutmeg, and banana or dates for a mincemeat-inspired variation. Add a pinch of salt to any of these variations if it is to your taste.


Food Storage Applicability: Squash store well for part of the year, especially with the help of a root cellar or cold room. Everything else should be shelf stable.

Word of Wisdom: I like that this recipe uses seasonal produce and has a strong ratio of vegetable to grain. If you want to decrease the amount of grain, add some nuts to replace some of the oats.

Gluten and Corn Free: I haven't had a problem with any of these ingredients. Do ensure your honey is corn free or substitute a safe sweetener for you.

A note on corn and oats: When I refer to corn on this website, I am referring to maize. Other crops, including oats, are called corn in some parts of the world. Check out what the Bible Dictionary says about corn:

I didn't realize this until I was talking to a vendor at my local farmer's market about corn. He was of obvious scottish heritage and wanted to know if by corn I meant corn on the cob or oats. It was by chance that I happened across the entry in the Bible Dictionary only a few days later. This may be good to remember if you ever find yourself needing to ask questions of somebody with a different background or if you are travelling abroad.

This soup was inspired by a trip to the local produce store and a slough of substitutions from this recipe. Feel free to mix and match veggies or adjust ratios. I love this soup because it is full of delicious autumn flavours while staying safely corn free. So many soup recipes call for broth, and I am yet to make my own safe broth. The roasted vegetables have fantastic texture and keep the flavour varied. It doesn't hurt that I am a huge coconut curry fan! This recipe is a unanimous yes in our family.

Ingredients:

Coconut oil*
2 medium butternut squash, halved and de-seeded
3 large parsnips, coarsely chopped
8 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
4-5 medium beets (or one gargantuan one like I used), coarsely chopped
2 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, sliced
10 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4-5 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 apples, chopped
1.5 tbsp curry powder
2.5 tbsp cumin
2 tsp turmeric
2 heavy dashes coriander
1 cup red lentils (omit if you eat paleo)
2 cans coconut milk**
3-4 cups of hot water (2 cups to simmer and the rest after the roasted vegetables, adjusted to achieve desired thinness)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar***
juice of 2 limes
1 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
ample sea salt or rock salt to taste****
a goodly bit of fresh ground black pepper to taste

*You could use olive oil, but I prefer coconut oil for cooking because of the smoke point. Since coconut oil has a higher smoke point, it can be heated to a higher temperature without smoking. When an oil smokes, there is an underlying chemical change occurring, and the end result is not as healthy.
**Watch this ingredient. Make sure to read the label. The ideal contains only coconut milk. Some brands are diluted by water and many contain other additives. Guar gum is corn free (according to my reading and experience, but do your own research and know your own sensitivity), but it is not nutritious.
***Pasteurized is sufficient for this recipe. Avoid buying heinz as word of mouth indicates it may provide issues for persons with corn intolerance.
****Iodized salt, often labelled generically as salt, is made with corn. Make sure you are using an unprocessed salt. The coarseness of the grind is irrelevant in this recipe.

Procedure:

• Preheat oven at 350. Coat bottoms of squash (open side down), parsnips, carrots, beets, and zucchini with coconut oil and bake 35-60 minutes until soft.
• Lightly sauté onions, garlic, ginger, and apples in a stock pot on medium low heat with lid until soft (about 10 minutes).
• Stir in curry, cumin, turmeric, and coriander. Toss in lentils and gently fry for about one minute.
• Add coconut milk, 2 cups of water, apple cider vinegar, and limes. Stir well, reduce heat, and simmer with lid until lentils are soft (another 10-15 minutes) or baked vegetables are ready. Stir intermittently.
• Remove baked vegetables from oven and add to pot. I sliced the squash into cubes and scraped it out with a spoon. Toss in cilantro. Add water to achieve desired consistency. You may want to increase heat to medium. Add salt and pepper to taste. Adjust other flavours to taste. Serve when soup has uniformly taken on the reddish hue imparted from the beets, cilantro is wilted, and soup is simmering gently.

This soup probably serves 7-8. As a nursing mother, my sense of serving size is off. I am so grateful for these seasonal vegetables we are blessed with!

Variations: Experiment with different squash and root vegetables! You could also throw in cooked rice or beans. Try adding a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg.

Food storage applicability: Limited by means. Should be able to make this soup exclusively from storage during part of the year with the help of a root cellar or cold room and/or overwintering your veggies.

Word of Wisdom: At this time of year, this is a fresh produce in season victory! I love how much of this soup is fruit, vegetable, and herb, just what we should be eating. The only suspicious character is the guar gum if your coconut milk isn't pure.

Gluten and corn free: This soup should be safe. There is a small chance of corn cross contamination if the produce was stored with corn.

A note on root vegetables: Root vegetables tend to be particularly susceptible to absorbing pesticides (think about how roots work). As such, we have a tendency to scrub and peel. I vastly prefer the flavour, texture, and nutrition of intact root vegetables. For those eating mainly vegan diets, traces of dirt remaining on (preferably organic) roots may be a viable source of Vitamin B12, the most difficult nutrient to obtain without milk or meat.

If you try my recipe or any variation of it, let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!