Acorn squash

My Sweet, Sweet Acorn Squash

So what are these curious little veggies that you pass by in the supermarket produce section and think, what the hell is that?  An Acorn Squash is an awesome little fall gem in my house, an excuse to have something sweet as a side dish instead of your typical vegetable.   This is a very simple delicious way to eat an acorn squash.  This is NO WAY is diet food, but it is clean eating if done properly.  You'll need an acron squash and a big sharp knife to get started.

Cut the top off as close to the edge as possible so it's just a sliver off the top.  this gives you a flat spot to cut it lengthwise, go ahead and cut it as close to the center as possible starting from the bottom and going through to the top where your first cut was.  Scoop out the seeds like you would a pumpkin and throw them away, or if it's organic, you can save the seeds, which I might make into a separate blog post and a future time.  

You only need 3 ingredients to make the most awesome Acorn squash ever.  Organic Coconut Sugar, Organic 100% pure maple syrup and organic butter.  That's it!

Next take some room temp, soft butter and rub the inside of the entire Acorn squash.  I use my fingers, seems the best tool there is for this job.   Then sprinkle the coconut sugar all over the top edge and of course some will fall in the center, that's great, I use a good amount, I mean it is after all a sweet treat. 

 I then fill up the Acorn Squash center with some Maple Syrup.  It's important to get REAL Maple Syrup.  The one we grew up eating is nothing more then High Fructose Corn Syrup and chemicals and it's by no means clean eating, but real organic maple syrup or honey, NOW that's a clean eating sweet treat!  Also put the squash in a water bath, this insures the outside doesn't burn and get super tough, I usually fill it up pretty full, don't be scared, just be careful when putting it in and taking it out of the oven.  

And The Finished Product is this!  After baking in the oven at 400 degrees for one hour 15 minutes to give to my son, I score the inside with a knife and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into a bowl and pour the sugary goodness on top.  For myself I literally just place the whole half on my plate and dig in, because there is syrup in there each bite is insured to be tasty goodness on a spoon. 

So there it is

Ingredients:

1 Acorn Squash

2 TBSP of Coconut Sugar

2-3 TBSP of Maple Syrup

1-2 TBSP of Butter

Breakfast cookies

Breakfast Cookies! Who doesn't like a good cookie?

Well now you can have them for breakfast and give them to your children, and KNOW they are actually eating a healthy creation.  So after thinking this through I decided to omit the cacao chips.  Mainly cause I didn't know how this was going to turn out and didn't want to waste them, and secondly because it is breakfast, so I thought since they are for Levi, then I dont need to be giving my 16 month old chocolate chips with breakfast, but feel free to add them in for your cookies.

So what's in it:  Gluten Free Oats, Coconut flakes, Ground up flax seeds, chopped up pecans, raisins, salt, apple butter, almond butter, coconut oil, honey, agave, vanilla and a smashed up banana.  Pretty simple combine all dry in 1 bowl, combine all wet in another and then mix them together.

Here is the dry ingredients all combined.  I took the Gluten Free rolled oats and zapped them in the food processor real quick to kinda chop them up just a little bit. I used 1 & 1/2 C. of gluten free rolled oats. 1 C. of grated coconut, 1 TBS of ground flax seed, I used my coffee grinder to get a fine powder, and a bunch of raisins, probably about 1/4-1/2 cup.  1/4 C Chopped Pecans, I made these for a toddler with limited teeth, so I chopped them finely, you chop them how you see fit.










Here are the wet ingredients, I left the banana somewhat chunky, just for more flavor and because it wasn't an overly rip banana.  Also in there is the honey, the apple butter, the almond butter, the coconut oil, the agave nectar, vanilla and I guess if you wanted you could add some cinnamon as well.  I didn't this time.  I literally eyeballed this, using at least 2 TBS of each and then added some more apple butter another 1-2 TBS and more honey another tbs. after the banana was mashed and I thought it needed more.

This is what it looked like when I added the dry ingredients to the wet and mixed it all up.  Now it's ready to go onto a greased baking sheet.

Here they are on the cookie sheet in the oven, I baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Pretty typical!

And the Final Product!

Levi approved, double fisting with a horns up!

It's the first time I gave Levi a "cookie" and I felt great about it.  No sugar, no processed crap, just good wholesome ingredients and he was happy and I was happy. 

The Cookie Monster says "MMMM MMMM"

Ice Cream You Scream! Toasted Almond Ice Cream!!

Ice Cream has got to be one of the greatest creations by man of all time. 

OK, so maybe that's a bit much, but my goodness, 

it does rank really high up there on that man's greatest accomplishment list.

You start with cream and milk.  2:1 ratio. 2 cups cream, 1 cup milk.  Now for me, that means a local dairy fresh raw cream (Circle N) and a second local dairy for the milk (Dry Valley). I prefer the taste of the milk of the jersey cow, but cant get straight cream from that dairy, boohoo.  Circle N's cream is TO DIE FOR! Organic sugar  (2/3 cup) along with vanilla extract (1 tsp) and almond extract (1 1/2 tsp) round out the ingredients for the base.  I first incorporate the sugar into the milk because its not as thick as the cream...which is stout.  Then mix the rest of the ingredients together.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to get maximum chilling effect.  For this recipe I got some great organic raw almonds from a co-op and blanched them in boiling water for 1 minute to make shell extraction easy.  The shell just pops right off.  Make sure to get them out after 1 minute and cooling in cold water immediately.

After that I dry them off and throw them in the processor for a quick chop...chop as you see fit, it's your ice cream.  I then throw them in a hot pan with melted butter like 2-3 tablespoons of butter, and proceed to cook them to my liking, a nice brown, not too done.  Put them off to cool while you make the ice cream.

So I forgot to take a picture of the almonds all roasted up in butter, lol.  It's OK, you get it.

While the ice cream is churning according to your makers manufactures directions, add the toasted almonds towards the end.  I've also added chocolate chips before, but I ran out, cause I was using them with plain almonds and raisins for a night snack.  This is a pretty simple tasty recipe, no additives, simple ingredients, literally, cream, milk, sugar, extracts, almonds and butter.  That's it!  Can't get much more CLEAN then that.  I didn't say this was not fattening, I didn't say it was diet food, it's not, but it's clean, no chemical additives, all organic ingredients, and to be honest, the best damn ice cream you'll ever have!  

And Here is the final product....Toasted Almond Ice Cream!  Pure happiness in a bowl!

Lets get this party started!

Starting a blog

So I've decided after 16 months and just having a baby it's time for me to get back to normal and share with my friends some of my passions.  With that said, the first thing I will be blogging about is my son.  Every so often I will post some pictures or video, let you all know what he is up to, what his favorite things to do, things like that.  

I also am into cooking clean food. What does that mean, lol.  That means that I had to rethink and relearn what cooking means. And since then, I have grown to love my new way of cooking. Why Blog? Because people are always asking me ideas on what to cook and how to make it, so this is a place I can share with you. The reason I got into clean eating was due to chronic illness and after pregnancy getting so sick that I was unable to live like I normally did, I was living in a fog. I had to figure out what was wrong with me, and do something about it.  I have been researching my illness now for a year and have made a lot of strides in the right direction.  I am still not 100%, not even close, to be honest, BUT, I have no choice but to move forward.  I feel like this outlet will help me organize my thoughts, and provide me with some interaction with my loved ones. 

I also have a garden and I will be doing in depth explanations of different ways of doing things there as well, from starting seeds to harvesting, how I make my dirt, to what I feed the plants.  So right now the three things that I love most in life and keep me busy are my son, our eating, due to my health condition and my gardening.  So that's where I will start. 

Thanks for checking in on my blog and hope you find at least something useful in my writings, maybe a recipe, or a smile from looking at Levi.  

Thanks for taking the time to join me today

~Vicki