Leftover eggnog?

I love eggnog. In years past, I've guzzled away entire cartons of this creamy drink. This year, I had homemade eggnog ice cream instead, and it was delicious.

Due to my diet, I have to eat homemade probiotic yogurt every day to make sure there are enough good bacteria in my system. I was never a big yogurt fan to begin with, but after over a year of daily yogurt consumption, I needed a way to spice things up.

Enter bananog. Recently, I'd been craving a banana milkshake with ice cream. The ice cream in my freezer was eggnog-flavoured. I thought it might be worth a try... and oh, it was. If you like these two things, you'll see that they complement each other quite well. They're also strong enough flavours that with a bit of help from vanilla and nutmeg, you won't even notice the tangy yogurt!

So if you have leftover eggnog in your fridge, give this guy a shot. You can use vanilla ice cream and eggnog instead of eggnog ice cream and milk like I did, or if you're feeling ambitious, you can put your eggnog straight into the ice cream machine and make your own!

Bananog
sliced frozen banana (I keep this in my freezer for smoothies and banana ice cream)
eggnog ice cream
yogurt (about the same quantity as the ice cream)
milk (or cream if you're feeling really decadent)
splash of vanilla
sprinkle of nutmeg
honey to taste, if needed

Put all ingredients into your blender and go to town! Adjust quantities to your taste - I like being able to taste the banana and the eggnog equally. I also prefer a thicker beverage; sometimes, I have to add more liquid just to get it to blend! If you like something thinner, go easy on the banana and ice cream. Have fun!

The best SCD birthday cake.

This year, I knew I wanted a bonafide birthday cake. I had adapted a clementine cake recipe for Thanksgiving, thinking that if it passed muster I would make it again for my birthday. When I was talking to my mom about it, though, she seemed really intrigued, and I decided that the clementine cake would instead become my Christmas dessert while I was visiting, which left me free to figure out a more birthday-appropriate cake - something with layers and frosting. After much deliberation, I finally decided on this recipe for yellow cake with chocolate ganache (check the comments for the ganache recipe).

It didn't start out quite like I was expecting - the batter was quite frothy, and I only had one pan, so I baked a layer before lunch and one several hours later. I was worried that the "lift" would be affected for the second layer, but it actually rose much better than the first.

I changed the ganache recipe around a bit. I used lactose-free cream and not as much chocolate - 240 grams instead of 340. I added crystallised fructose because the chocolate was very dark and I wanted to be sure it was sweet enough. The ganache separated a bit when I chilled it. We ended up warming it closer to room temperature and whipping it in our standing mixer so we'd be able to frost the cake.

 The final product was delicious. A friend of mine had to leave early, so she had a slice before we actually sang happy birthday. My husband used this to his advantage...

The cake barely lasted through Sunday. On Monday, there was one solitary chunk left, but it soon vanished...

Two random fashion-related things.

Number one:

{Jeremy Scott, Fall 2011}

This dress exists. If I was rich, I'd be going as a sparkly sequined Supergirl next Hallowe'en.

Number two:
I went Christmas shopping last night, but I was also on the hunt for myself - hoping to find the perfect black jersey maxi skirt and a sequined top. I found the skirt (in navy, but that's still a neutral in my book). The top, however, was another story. Why are all the sequined tops either ugly, sold out, or waaaaay overpriced? If I was a better sewer, I'd just make my own. I've already started designing a few of them in my head...

Number three:
Marc Jacobs has IBD! He suffers from ulcerative colitis, which is similar to Crohn's but with a much smaller scope. He also uses diet to treat his disease, like me. It's always encouraging to hear about other people with IBD taking their health into their own hands with great results.

recovering sandwich addict.

I love sandwiches. Always have, probably always will. My love of bread was one of the things keeping me from starting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It had a carby hold on me - especially after I met my husband, who went to baking school and makes a mean loaf of ciabatta. Why would I abandon a wonderful foodstuff that had never done anything but fill my belly and put a smile on my face?

Eventually, I got sick and tired enough that I decided to try to use the food I ate to help control my Crohn's disease, even if it meant giving up most dairy, and sugar, and starches... and bread.

Almost a year later, I'm feeling better than ever. I think the SCD is helping me a lot, and I feel wonderfully proactive every single day (the other treatment I use is a medication I get by IV every 8 weeks... pretty passive in comparison, wouldn't you say?).

However, I still miss sandwiches. Sometimes, things are just meant to be wedged between two slices of bread. Sadly, grain-free breads have disappointed me so far, what with expensive ingredients and lackluster results.

Here are a few of the ways I can console myself:

- Burgers with lettuce "buns" (usually boston lettuce, since it's strong). It's still pretty messy, though. I've also tried weaving bacon strips into "buns", but it ended in disaster. Lately, I just make a burger salad - my burger (sometimes topped with cheese, or with bacon on the side), my veggies, and my condiments all arranged prettily on the plate. Then I can vary my toppings from bite to bite! Yum.

(I haven't taken any photos of my salad, and all the hamburger salad images on these here internets are grotesque, so here! Have a hamburger dress instead. I think I've found next year's Hallowe'en costume!)

- A salad version of a BLT. I start off with bacon, lettuce, and tomato with a mayo-based dressing. Sometimes I add grilled chicken, or avocado, or cheddar cheese, or all three! Delightful. You can do this with pretty much any sandwich - get your favorite Subway sub as a salad (hold the dressing), serve your favorite chicken salad in lettuce cups, and so on.

- This recipe for grilled chicken burgers with peaches and honey mustard sauce (which I have yet to try) from My Big Fat Grain Free Life. Look at that deliciousness! Who needs a bun?!

- Or... I COULD give this extremely appealing grain-free bread recipe a try - no coconut flour, so it won't be dry, and it only calls for a bit of almond butter and almond flour. I find that baked goods with nut butters tend to come out better than nut flours, for some reason (dryness, maybe?), so the two combined should be tasty.

 AAAAAAA who am I kidding I'm so excited! This looks just like the real thing! I'm making this as soon as my clementine cake runs out!

Mom's Thanksgiving idea.

This year, we went to Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother's house. We were staying at my parents' house, though, so we had a lot of food to transport! This would have been easy, except we also needed to fit four adults into one small Echo.

Thank goodness for my mom. She grabbed a laundry basket and started piling in apple cider, mineral water, salad, stuffing (two kinds - SCD for me, normal for everyone else), pumpkin brownies, steamed asparagus, an entire carrot cake... and it all fit! We just stuck it in the trunk and off we went.

Obviously, other people have done this, as evidenced by these photos (neither of which are mine). I would never have thought of it, though - leave it to a Mom.

SCD chocolate chip cookies

Back in August, I had a craving for some chocolate chip cookies. I found this recipe on Comfy Belly and tried it out. It was wonderful. They don't taste like "normal person" chocolate chip cookies, but they are definitely close enough for me.

SCD fruit crisp a la Meg

What does one do with a bunch of nectarines and blueberries? Why, one makes a fruit crisp, of course!

Meg's Fruit Crisp
Recipe adapted from Maggie's Apple Crisp.

















Fruit:
however much you want, whatever kind you prefer - I used blueberries and nectarines. You could also use peaches, cherries, raspberries, apples, pear, cranberries, or any other combination you can think of (kiwi and banana might be kind of gross for a crisp, though).
Enough honey to lightly coat most of the fruit - a few tablespoons should do the trick.

Topping:
1/2 c. butter, softened enough to mix easily
1 & 1/2 c. almond flour
1 c. unsweetened coconut flakes
1/3 c. honey
1 c. finely ground nuts (walnuts suggested - I tried cashews, but they got hard and added an unpleasant texture to the crisp. The next time, I just omitted them.)
splash of vanilla
spices if you're into that

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare fruit and place in baking dish. I find a taller, slimmer dish works better than a short, wide one, unless you want the fruit to absorb the crust. Add honey. Mix to coat fruit.
3. Place in preheating oven to soften fruit a bit. Take out after 5 minutes or so.
4. Work on topping: Combine all ingredients in no particular order. Consistency should be similar to cookie dough. If dough is too moist and sticky, add more dry ingredients. Try not to eat the dough as-is.
5. Place topping on top of fruit. I find it's easier to use my fingers than a utensil to spread the topping. Make sure that there is a way for bubbling fruit to escape onto the crust if needed.

8. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes, or until top is golden brown. If you used a taller dish, the crust will be thicker and probably won't cook the whole way through. This is okay. The rawer crust is eggless, so it's safe to eat, and also delicious.

9. Try not to eat it all in one sitting. This goes very well with SCD yogurt or ice cream. YUM.

Thanksgiving.

For any non-Canucks out there, the Great White North has already had its Thanksgiving weekend (unless you're like me and are married to an American, in which case it was "Thanksgiving: Part One of a Delicious Two-Part Series"). Thanksgiving is pretty much the best holiday - great weather, no gift-giving (seriously so stressful - I'm forcing my best friend to be my "present consultant" this year), a long weekend to spend with family and friends, and FOOD.

Of course, that last part becomes a bit more challenging on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. While turkey and veggies are usually okay, the fun and special Thanksgiving trappings like stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and DESSERT get a bit more complicated.

I started this diet last year right before American Thanksgiving, which was very discouraging, and the Christmas season was a very long exercise in willpower. I made it through with one cheat (a bite of brownie) and a bit of gastric distress.

This time, though, I was ready. My dear Mum made me a homemade cranberry sauce with spices, and I made myself some steamed asparagus, breadless vegan stuffing and almond butter pumpkin brownies with chocolate chips.

I was also an enabler, forcing the people around me to eat all the foods I could not consume. It was especially bad since I was sitting the middle of the table, with all the desserts in front of me, so I kept asking if anyone needed a slice of cake or pie. One of our guests said of the meal, "It was like Man vs. Food. I won Thanksgiving at your house!"

To see what I thought of the stuffing and brownie recipes, check out my mini-reviews on pinterest. I find it really helpful to have my impressions of a recipe there, since it's usually what I use to find my favorite internet recipes (and I hope it comes in handy for my fellow pinterest browsers).

As for American Thanksgiving, a.k.a. Part Two? I plan to make this stuffing again (sans tomato), attempt gravy made with a pureed onion, try mashed cauliflower, and try a different dessert (maybe do a test run for my birthday cake in December?

Next week, I want to feature another Thanksgiving idea, courtesy of my genius mom. 

Apple dip.

My dad brought my husband and I a big bag of apples on his last visit. While I do love an apple on its own, there's something kind of magical to me about the combination of apple and nut butter. Besides, plain apples get a little less exciting after you've eaten a dozen of them.

Enter my SCD-friendly and addictive apple dip - I've made several small batches already. I don't actually dip the apple slices in, because the dip is too thick, but I'm not sure what the proper term is for "delicious-half-dip-half-spread-that-I-eat-with-the-spoon-I-used-to-make-it-with". Anyway, it's tasty and wonderful and fairly healthy. Doesn't it look good?

I think so, too. Here's how you make it.

1. Get a bowl.
2. Put nut butter in it (I've used storebought almond butter and homemade almond/cashew/brazil nut butter, because that's what I tolerate/can afford. Peanut butter would be tasty too!).
3. Add unsweetened shredded coconut (I like using enough to really thicken it up to a no-bake cookie consistency), pure vanilla extract, and your sweetener of choice (honey for me!).
4. If you're feeling indulgent, you can add some cocoa (it tastes like Nutella!). You could also add dried fruit, crumbled nuts, spices (nutmeg might be good, or cinnamon), and whatever other crazy stuff your heart desires. You could also go REALLY crazy and make these into nut butter truffles by omitting the cocoa, rolling the dip into balls, freezing them for a little bit to firm them up, and dipping them into melted chocolate (YUM).
5. Eat it with a spoon, and some apple too, if you remember. Enjoy. Or else.

15 of 30: Not productive, but VERY fun.

navy maxidress: thrifted, Old Navy // pink cardigan: consignment-ed, Calvin Klein // black wide elastic belt: thrifted // earrings: gifted.

I wore a 30 for 30 outfit today, since I feel like I'm behind. Besides, if my outfit looks bad, at least it's a weekend, right? Anyway. But did I take pictures? Not really, no. Instead, my husband, younger brother and I hung out and read funny articles to each other, ate cheesecake, and then went for a walk. Then we sent my younger brother off for the week and the husband and I did a bunch of stuff:
We went to the thrift store (in this case, the Salvation Army in our neighbourhood). We bought a bizarre three-photo series of a man who appears to live in the 1970s...permanently. He has the mustache to prove it. An elderly gentleman in the thrift store was convinced that the man was a jazz musician that he'd seen before. We were bummed out to hear that there were actually more of the photos, but someone has bought the other 3 the night before.
We also picked up something practical: a navy futon cover to hide our ugly 80s-style multicoloured pastel monstrosity. This looks so much better on our futon.
I also had a weird experience: the items I donated earlier this week after a closet purge were for sale in the store! I knew the Gap maxi-dress was the same one I'd donated because the stain on the stomach was still there (le blush).
For dinner, we made a meatza (SCD ground-beef-crust pizza) for the first time. For toppings, we had crumbled bacon, yellow pepper, tomato, sauteed onions and mushrooms with brick and parmesan cheeses.
For an appetizer, I made a salad with a spicy mustard vinaigrette. It was my first time making a vinaigrette that actually followed a recipe, which is probably why it actually tasted good. I'm really excited to be able to eat raw fruit and veggies, and really excited by my creativity!Here's the vinaigrette recipe: mix together 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons Dijon or spicy brown mustard, and 1 teaspoon honey, using whisk or a fork. Adjust proportions to taste. That wasn't so hard, was it? I used the dressing on top of a salad with baby spinach, spring mix, red d'Anjou pear, and crumbled pecans. It was very tasty. If you're a strawberry fan, slice some of those babies in as well. They'll be happy to be there.
Later on, we had some friends over. I served them some cocoa-orange banana ice cream. I know cocoa isn't SCD-legal, but it hasn't bothered me in the slightest.
Though it was not as productive of a day as I had planned, it was a lot of fun.

Quick and dirty recipe: SCD banana nut pudding

{image source}

I first discovered this easy, easy recipe on pecanbread.com. I'm semi-following their "stages" program as I slowly transition myself onto the "full" SCD diet, complete with raw veggies and nut flours (I'm not quite there yet). Luckily for me, they have a recipe section that's sorted by stage, and it was here I discovered banana nut pudding when I was introducing nut butter.

Banana nut pudding is basically:

SCD yogurt

Nut butter

Honey to taste

Banana

All mixed together in a bowl and eaten. I eat it with almond butter, light on the honey (some people prefer a more generous portion), and with a whole ripe banana mashed in. Chill for an hour or so and enjoy.

Possible variations:

I bet this would taste wonderfully rich with cashew butter. Another way to add richness would be by using a yogurt made with cream instead of milk.

Nix the banana altogether. I saw this variation on Renegade Foodie using crême fraîche instead of yogurt.

You could also replace the banana with other fruits, like berries.

Try nut butters and fruits that go well together. Almonds are friends with raspberries and apricots, macadamias favour tropical fruits such as mango or pineapple, and rich cashews need something lighter, like a pear or applesauce. I've tried cherry with almond, but it needed some honey. I think next time I'd try a cherry sauce instead.

More advanced SCDers could add coconut and chopped nuts to the mix. A pina colada nut pudding with pineapple, coconut, and macadmaias sounds pretty tasty to me.

I've tried freezing the pudding once, but that messed up the texture of the yogurt. It might work if you mixed it up in the food processor after freezing, like in SCD banana ice cream, but I haven't tried it.

So here it goes, guys. My first...fashion-y blog post. I'm not even sure what to call it. I'm terrified.

At least I looked cute today?

Yellow tee: Talbots (stolen from my mum)
Navy sweater: Joe Fresh
Brown pencil skirt: thrifted, The Limited
Brown tights: no idea
Brown boots: no idea
Accessories: nonexistent.

Right, guys? ... Guys? Well, I think I looked pretty cute. Considering it was rainy and horribly humid all day, my hair behaved marvelously. It never curls like that, except when I want it to. The weirdest thing is, it was all frizzy and gross this morning. But for some reason, it morphed into this sleek, wavy gorgeousness. Even more strange, my hairspray kept my bangs straight today, though it usually doesn't on humid days (possibly because I put on about five times more than I usually do?).

Ah well. If all else fails and the internet thinks I look like a troll, at least I had awesome eclairs today. One of the perks of a studly baker husband (the other perks being kissing, housekeeping, and having a free photographer). <3 size="2">P. S. Please excuse my skirt looking wonky - my raincoat didn't cover the whole thing, and it hadn't dried by the time we took pictures.
P.P.S There are more perks: he does the dishes and cooks me dinner to boot. And did I mention the kissing...?

Evil caramel.

Caramel = not part of a balanced diet, especially if you've got a wedding dress to squeeze into in a little less than a month.
That said, throwing myself into this bowl is really, really appealing.

Via Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

Individual ginger-peach hand-pies how-to courtesy of the Kitchn.

There are no anchovies in real Caesar Salad. Julia Child says so.

Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, pickles, olives, pickled beets, salad, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple crumble pie, and more dessert... and yet, part of me wonders if there's room for sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

(Edit: We had an hour to spare, so sweet potatoes with marshmallows were made, and were tasty. So were the pumpkin spice cookies with vanilla glaze that our guests brought).

Sweet nothings...

With exams and deadlines looming, I'm looking forward to the summer and to my wedding. We're having a fun afternoon affair - part picnic, part potluck, part barbecue, followed by games and dancing for anybody who wants to dance. Over the past week or so, though, I keep coming back to one special part of the party in mind: the dessert table.

The fella and I have discussed the cake a few times. A local baker was very enthusiastic, but too expensive. Since the world's best bakers are my mom and my fella, I figured we'd be better off taking care of things ourselves. However, there are about a million options for wedding desserts! Decisions, decisions...

Option 1:
We first considered doing cupcakes: cute and an easy way of including different flavours (a must, since the fella adores chocolate, but my maid of honour is allergic).

However, we had to abandon the idea because of how labour-intensive these beauties are. It takes a lot of careful frosting application to make these babies look good, and I think we'll have enough going on without a messy "pimp my cupcake" bar. They are really cute, though...


Option 2:
Two cakes! One chocolate, of course... (I am really attached to tree-themed cakes, and part of me wants tree-trunk cake stands)
and one... rainbow? I love rainbow cakes - the fella and I baked one for my younger brother's birthday last year, and it was beautiful.
This is the tye-dye style we used for his, but we could also try different-coloured layers...
Sweet, right? I'd probably err on the side of pastel, though my inner child is digging the vibrant colours...

Option 3:
Speaking of my inner child, how about a rice krispie cake?
So adorable, eh? It would be easy to make, really cheap, and easy to customise with, for example, layers featuring M&Ms or peanut butter.

Option 4:
Another wedding dessert option is pie. It's currently on the trendy side, and for good reason: who doesn't love pie? You can pick and choose from a ton of flavour options and permutations - fruit pies, cream pies, meringue pies... Plus, the Tec Pataja photoshoot this image is taken from remains my favorite source of wedding inspiration (I still want horses wandering through my wedding).
Option 5:
The thing is, none of these desserts thrill and delight me as much as the prospect of my favorite summertime dessert: strawberry shortcake. My mother always made it with biscuits, and I would want just that: fresh whipped cream, piles of sweet, juicy strawberries, and buttery biscuits soaking in all the flavour.
Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you're feeling indulgent. Oh man, not ANOTHER option!

Option 72: Homemade ice cream sandwiches

Option 73: Gelato

Option 74: Candy bar

Option 879: The biggest dessert bar that anyone has even seen.
Thank goodness we still have months to decide...