Apple Season!

Fresh apples are a wonderful treat at this time of year.  I try to avoid buying apples at other times of year when they are not in season (like during the spring and summer).  Eating fruit as it comes in season is a great way to ensure that the fruit you buy will always be fresh and delicious, rather than picked and then transported for weeks from some far away locale.  This year, our two apple trees provided us with plenty of apples right from our back yard.

Enjoy them now
We love to eat apples raw, and there are also some great ways to cook with apples.  Some of our favorite ways to cook with apples are:

• Apple clafoutis is one our top five grain-free breakfasts. 
• Cooked apples make a delicious side dish alongside pork or chicken.  Simply combine chopped apples with some butter, a dash of salt, and a bit of honey if desired. Then cook for about an hour over low heat.
• Caramel apples are a delicious treat!
• Apple cinnamon muffins are another beloved grain-free breakfast in our home.  

Preserve some apples
To extend our apple enjoyment, I like to preserve lots of apples.  An apple corer-peeler-slicer is essential to save time.  My favorite ways to preserve apples are:

• Dried apples: Core and slice the apples; then dry them in a dehydrator or oven at the lowest temperature.  We like to dry them until they are nice and crispy.  Dried apples make a great snack, and they can also be used to make apple raisin snack bars.
• Spiced apple butter: Throw cored apples (whole or sliced, with the peel on) into a slow cooker and let them cook all day.  Add spices like cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, and cloves.  Add a pinch of salt and some honey if desired.  Then blend it all with an immersion blender until it is nice and smooth.  I store apple butter in small jars in the freezer rather than canning it. It is wonderful stirred into a bowl of yogurt, on buttered toast, or on top of some homemade ice cream.
• Apple worms: Rather than throwing the apple peels into the compost bucket, I combine them with a dash of maple syrup and sometimes sprinkle them with a touch of cinnamon. Then dry them in the oven for several hours at 200 degrees F.  The result is a wonderful, crispy snack!  My kids gets a kick out of eating these "worms".

• Frozen raw apples: In a large pot or bowl, combine cold filtered water and some sea salt (I use 1/4 cup salt to one gallon water). Core, peel, and slice the apples, and then chop them a bit more into smaller pieces.  As each apple is prepared, drop the pieces into the salt water.  Once all the apples are immersed, give them a stir. Drain into a colander and do NOT rinse the apples.  Put the apples into quart freezer bags, and transfer to the freezer. Frozen appples are  wonderful in the middle of winter cooked into clafoutis or an apple crisp. 
• Frozen cooked apples: Peel, core, and slice apples.  Cook them over low heat with a dash of salt and a little butter or coconut oil.  When they are nice and soft, they are done!  Scoop them into glass jars or bowls and freeze them.  These make a great quick side dish or treat.  
• Apple core and peel jelly: Leftover apple cores and peels can be cooked to make a simple apple jelly.  I combine the peels and cores of about 20 apples with about 6 cups of water.  Cook over at a low simmer for about an hour, then strain.  The resulting apple liquid can be combined with sweetener of your choice to make jelly.  I use Pomona's pectin, which allows you to use any sweetener you like in much lesser quantities than traditional jelly recipes.

What are your favorite apple recipes? Are you preserving any apples this year?

GIVEAWAY: 9 Free Subscriptions to Real Food and Health Magazine!

Have you heard of Real Food and Health magazine?  It is a one-of-a-kind digital magazine for Real Foodies, and it is loaded with articles, kitchen tips, and nutrient-dense recipes. I've been writing for the magazine for about a year, and I find it to be a great source of information that applies to my lifestyles of nutrient-dense cooking and natural living.

Heather Lionelle, the editor of Real Food and Health magazine, has generously donated nine subscriptions to the magazine to Nourished and Nurtured readers.

• three 3-month subscriptions
• three 6-month subscriptions
• three 1-year subscriptions

And, another quick freebie: the first 25 people to follow this link and enter the code U3N5K will receive a PDF of the September/October issue of RFH for free!

Real Food and Health is unique in that it was specifically developed to be e-reader friendly, but also allows for recipes to be printed.  The magazine is 100% reader supported, and no ads are sold, so it is not loaded down with ads like so many other magazines. Issues are published bi-monthly, so there are six issues each year. The e-reader version of the magazine is sold on Amazon, and the PDF version is sold at the Real Food and Health website.

There are three ways to enter this giveaway:

• Leave a comment below. 
• Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and then leave another comment to let me know that you have done so. 
• Share this giveaway on Facebook, and then leave another comment to let me know that you have done so.  

I will randomly select 9 winners on Wednesday, September 19th.  The first three winners will each receive a 3-month subscription, the next three winners will each receive a 6-month subscription, and the final three winners will each receive a 1-year subscription.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (grain-free : primal : gluten-free : nut-free option)

These chocolate chip cookies are a new standby in our house. They are soft, moist, and delicious! I sometimes have a hard time digesting nuts, particularly almonds and peanuts.  So I wanted to develop a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that could be nut-free and grain-free.  These chocolate chip cookies fit the bill. 

Despite the fact that this recipe uses only coconut flour, they do not taste overly coconutty.  The secret ingredient that makes these cookies so moist and yummy is a bit of sour cream. Note, though, that these cookies are not GAPS-legal because of the sucanat and the chocolate chips. I previously posted a GAPS-legal peanut butter cookie here.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 40 cookies

• 2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup sucanat
• 1/2 cup mild-flavored honey
• 4 large eggs, preferably from pastured hens
• 1/4 cup full-fat sour cream, preferably organic
• 1 Tablespoon organic vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp almond extract*
• 3/4 tsp chunky grey Celtic sea salt
• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill coconut flour**
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips***
• 1/2 cup chopped crispy pecans (optional)
• Optional equipment: stand mixer****

1. Set your oven racks so that none are in the bottom third of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the salt, baking soda, and coconut flour. Whisk well to combine and break up any lumps of coconut flour.
3. In another bowl (or stand-mixer), beat the softened butter and sucanat together for a couple minutes, until it is light and fluffy.
4. Add the honey and continue to beat for a few more minutes until the honey is incorporated very well.  If you are using a stand-mixer, make sure you scrape the sides and bottom a couple times to get everything incorporated well.
5. Add the eggs one at a time while the mixer is running.  The easiest way to do this is to break all of the eggs into a bowl or cup and then just pour them in one-at-a-time.  Let each egg get incorporated before adding another one. (Note: the batter may look a bit curdled during this process, but don't worry about it!)
6. Add the sour cream, and mix well to combine.
7. Beat in the vanilla extract and almond extract.
8. While the mixer is running, add the dry ingredients a little at a time.  Since coconut flour does not contain gluten, there is no worry of over-mixing it!
9. Stir in the chocolate chips and optional pecans. 
10. Scoop the cookies onto greased cookie sheets (or line the cookie sheets with silpats, which are wonderful since the cookies never stick and are less likely to burn).  I like to use a 1-Tb scoop for consistently pretty cookies, but you could just use a spoon.
11. Press down the cookies with a spoon or fork. You may need to press them down a little less for subsequent batches baked on already-warm cookie sheets, as those cookies will spread more on their own.
12. Bake the cookies at 325 F for about 15-20 minutes (or a few minutes longer if you are cooking them on stoneware). They are done when they are golden brown on top and a little darker brown on the edges.
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes.  Then use a spatula to move them to a cooling rack.
14. Once cool, store these cookies in an airtight container.  They can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer if you won't be eating them all in the next few days.  They are nice and chewy straight from the fridge, and even soft enough to eat straight out of the freezer!  Storing them in the freezer will also remove the pressure of having to eat them all in a week or so, as they will last for months in the freezer.

*You can omit the almond extract if you have a nut allergy, but it really helps balance the flavor of these cookies and makes them less coconutty.
**I've recently switched to Bob's Red Mill brand coconut flour and I find it tastes better and is easier on digestion that the Let's Do Organic brand I used previously.  The reason I switched was that I noticed the Let's Do Organic brand started to be a bit of a darker color (maybe burnt?) and was also giving me a bit more heartburn.
***I use dairy-free, soy-free chocolate chips.
****I love using my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for making cookies as it makes it very easy to add the ingredients while the mixer is running.

This post is part of Pennywise Platter!

LEAVE THE BUTTER OUT! (on the counter, of course)

When we switched to using wholesome, healthy butter back in 2005, one of my biggest complaints was how hard it was to spread butter on bread, muffins, and waffles.  Luckily, a friend who had grown up eating butter told me the trick: leave the butter out on the counter!

What a perfect solution!  I always have a stick of butter in the butter dish on the counter.  It is always nice and soft, ready to slather on our morning waffles, muffins, or even sandwich bread. And for those of you wondering: no, the butter doesn't go bad on the counter!  Admittedly, a stick of butter never lasts us more than a week, but I know others who have left it out for over a week with no problem. 

I do not use one of those fancy butter keepers that have water in them, just a plain butter dish.  My butter dish happens to be metal, but glass is fine, too. I like to leave the butter stick in its wrapper, so that I don't have to clean the butter dish very often.  But I know plenty of others who go ahead and place the stick of butter directly on the butter dish.

A couple cautions:
1. If you buy RAW butter, I would not recommend leaving it out on the counter.  If you do, it will develop a much stronger, almost cheesy flavor over time. This is because the live enzymes in the raw butter are still working just as they would in making raw milk clabber on the counter.
2. If it is very hot in your house in the summer months, then your butter might melt and make a big mess.  This won't be a problem unless it gets upwards of 90 degrees in your house.

Fresh Spring Rolls with Sesame Lime Dipping Sauce (gluten-free)

This recipe for spring rolls combines cooked meat and veggies with some fresh grated carrots and bean threads. Rather than frying these rolls, they are eaten fresh.  They make a great, light dinner.

One thing I am still learning is how to roll these up nice and tight.  That seems like something that will come with lots of practice.  One other thing to note is that fresh spring rolls need to be prepared immediately before dinnertime, as they don't hold together very well if they sit in the fridge for very long because the wrappers are so delicate.

If you want to make this dish grain-free, just serve the cooked filling in a bowl, topped with the grated carrots, bean threads, and a drizzle of the Sesame Lime sauce.  

Fresh Spring Rolls with Sesame Lime Dipping Sauce
Serves 4-6

• For the cooked filling:
• 2 Tb coconut oil or other high temperature cooking fat/oil 
• 1/4 white onion, minced 
• 3 baby bok choy cabbages, chopped finely (keep the white and green parts separated)
• 8 ounces brown mushrooms, minced
• one pound ground turkey, pork, and/or chicken
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp mild-flavored honey
• 1 tsp rice vinegar

• 4 carrots, peeled and grated
• 2 ounces bean threads (also known as cellophane noodles)
• 12 rice spring roll wrappers (click here if you wonder why I use white rice instead of brown)
• hot filtered water for soaking the bean threads and spring roll wrappers
• Sesame lime dipping sauce (recipe follows)

1. To prepare the filling, place the oil and onion in a skillet over medium heat.  Saute the onion for a few minutes, until it is translucent.
2. Add the white parts from the bok choy and the mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper.  Saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Push the veggies to one side of the skillet.  Crumble the ground meat into the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and brown for a few minutes.  Then stir it all together and cook a bit more. 
4. Add the green parts of the bok choy, garlic, honey, and rice vinegar.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes.
5. Turn off heat and allow to cool to room temperature.  (If desired, the preceding steps can be done early in the day or even the day before, and the filling can be refrigerated until it is time to make the spring rolls. Let the filling sit at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes before you start rolling the spring rolls, just to take the chill off the filling.)
6. Soak the bean threads in very hot water for 20-30 minutes, until they are nice and soft.  Drain well. 
7. The spring roll wrappers need to be soaked in warm water one at a time as you roll them.  I found that a 9-inch cake pan filled with warm water worked perfectly for soaking the wrappers.  You can either cut the wrappers in half (as they are in shown in the pictures) or leave them whole for larger spring rolls.  You'll also need a couple clean damp kitchen towels: one to roll the spring rolls on and one to place the finished rolls on.
8. To prepare each spring roll:

• Soak a wrapper in warm water until it is translucent and flexible.  I found that a longer soak (~2 minutes) in warm water works better than a quick soak (30 seconds) in very hot water.  Carefully place the softened wrapper on a damp towel.
• Place some grated carrots on the wrapper, followed by a bit of bean threads, and then a scoop of the cooked meat/mushroom mixture.  
• Carefully fold up the sides and roll up the spring roll.  I used a method similar to rolling up a burrito.
• Place the finished spring roll on a damp towel and begin another.

Serve the spring rolls right away, along with the Sesame Lime Dipping Sauce.  Egg drop soup makes an nice side dish. 

Sesame Lime Dipping Sauce
Makes about 1/2 cup 

• 1 tsp mild-flavored raw honey
• 1/2 Tb rice vinegar
• 1 Tb fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup gluten-free tamari soy sauce
• 2 Tb filtered water
• 2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, and stir to combine. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge.

Favorite Resources for Teaching Kids to Read

As my daughter has reached school age, my first priority in homeschooling has been to teach her reading.  Reading is the foundation upon which she will be able to gain access to lots of great books and information. My daughter is now 5 and 1/2 years old, and we've been doing formal reading lessons for about a year. She has progressed beyond the simple phonics-based books and can now read words like "delighted", "memories", and "laughed" with no trouble.

I wanted to share some of my favorite resources for teaching reading. And these aren't just for homeschooling families!  According to The Well-Trained Mind (which is one of my favorite books about schooling), "Sometime around the age of four or five, most children are ready to start reading." Reading is so fundamental that it seems like a great idea for all parents to be involved in the process of teaching reading.

The list of favorite resources is broken down into reading programs, homemade resources, and early reading books. I've also included a short list of some resources that did not suit us. 

Reading Programs:

• Bob Books:If I could only have one resource for teaching beginning reading, it would be Bob Books.  These great books take a gradual approach to reading, introducing very simple sentences initially and working up into quite complex sentences by the end of the series. There are 50 books in the series.  The first book has sentences such as, "Sam sat."  By the last book, kids are reading sentences such as, "They sat down together, and as far as I know, they are sitting there still."  Once or twice a year, you can get Bob Books Collections at Costco for a great price.  I much prefer the Bob Books in the Collection format because the books themselves are much larger than the normal Bob books you can find on Amazon or at the book store. (Additionally, there are now pre-reading Bob Alphabet books to teach letters and phonics sounds, but I've never seen these in person.) 

• Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading: This book looks different than many "Reading" books because there are no pictures.  Rather it is laid out with many individual lessons that teach kids to read using phonics.  This book also incorporates optional simple games that my daughter loved, and these games really helped to reinforce the reading lessons in a fun way. This book was especially helpful for us in the early stages of reading.  My daughter would get easily distracted by any pictures in books and want to just start guessing at words without actually trying to sound them out. Since there were no pictures in this book, it worked very well for us.  As my daughter's reading progressed, she became less and less interested in using this book, so we only got about halfway through it.  But it was essential for those first few months of daily reading lessons, and some of our best homemade resources (described below) were inspired by suggestions from this book. 

• Starfall (FREE!):Starfall is a great online resource for teaching the alphabet, phonics sounds, and beginning reading.  There are many different lessons and games, and they are designed in such a way that kids can very quickly learn to use the computer mouse too!  I generally limit screen time (computers and television) for my daughter to approximately 2-4 hours per week. I started letting her use the Starfall website once a week for about 10-20 minutes at a time when she was 2 & 1/2 years old.  It really helped her in learning the phonics sounds in a fun way, and she LOVED it!  As she progressed in learning to read, we relied much more on books we could hold in our hands, but I still allowed her to use Starfall about once a month to give her some variety in her reading lessons.  

• Progressive Phonics (FREE!):I only learned about Progressive Phonics a few months ago, but it is a really great online resource that works up from basic alphabet recognition all the way to advanced reading using phonics. There are numerous books and also activity sheets that can be used for each lesson. One thing I really love about this program is that you can actually save the books on your computer and print them out!  The stories are silly, and kids love to read them.  The books incorporate some more complex words for parents to read (and it is easy to tell which words are for parents since they are color-coded). This is nice because the stories can be much more engaging when they don't have to strictly stick to words the kids can read. I have printed the Progressive Phonics books, and we use them as part of our daily reading practice.  My daughter thinks these little books are hilarious, and she often asks to be able to read more and more of them.  I also rely on these books on days when my daughter is a bit reluctant to read, as she knows I will read all of the "hard" words (although she often forgets to give me a turn and just reads them herself anyway). 

Homemade Resources

• Mix and match word cards: Using halved index cards, you can make a fun game for kids who are learning to read simple words such as "cat" and "dog".  (This game and others like it are described in much more detail in Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.)
• Cut some index cards in half, and write a short word endings on each card. Word endings would be things like "at", "it", "ig", and so on.
• Cut some more index cards in half, and write a letter of the alphabet on each one. 
• Then use both sets of cards to make sets that go together.  For instance, pick out all of the letters that go with the "at" card (which would be c for cat, h for hat, and so on). 
• Put the "at" card in front of your child.  Place all of the corresponding alphabet cards face down, and allow the child to flip one over and place it next to the "at" card.  Let her try to sound out the word.  If she says it correctly, then she gets to keep that alphabet card; if not, then it gets flipped back over with the other alphabet cards. Repeat for all of the corresponding alphabet cards until the child has all of them.
• Mix and match sentence cards: Using index cards, a fun game can be made where the child assembles and reads funny sentences. (This game is based on one from Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.) My daughter especially loved this game, and it was great because I could keep making more cards with more complex sentences as her reading level progressed.  Often times, we would use just this game with lots of different cards for our daily reading lesson.

• Get a little stack of index cards and use a red marker to write a noun on each one.  My daughter especially liked to use the cards that said the names of her friends, stuffed animals, and family members.
• On another stack of cards, use a green marker to write sentence endings that will go with the noun cards.  For instance, you could write "had a picnic" and "ate a rat". Just make sure to write sentence endings that will be easy for your child to read at her current reading level.
• Place the noun cards face-down in front of your child on the left side, and place the sentence ending cards face down on your child's left side. Let the child pick one card from each side and put them together to make a sentence that the child will read.

• Custom stories: One way I found for providing the variety and interest my daughter needed was to write simple stories based on her interests.  For instance, one story was about her and several of her stuffed animals having a party together.  The main thing point to write only words that your kid can easily read, and pick subjects that will excite them.  These aren't fancy stories; just use plain old paper and write up whatever you'd like.  They are especially great because you can emphasize any particular reading area that your child needs to practice.  When my daughter was working on the letter c making a "sss" sound when followed by an e, i, or y, I wrote a story for my daughter about a girl going to the circus, and seeing some tiny mice there.

Our Favorite Books for Beginning Reading

• Dick and Jane books: Dick and Jane books have lots of word repetition that kids like when they are first learning to read.  While I find these books stilting if I read them aloud myself, they are perfect for kids to read aloud to their parents or siblings once they already know the phonics sounds.  My daughter was especially excited to be able to so easily read these stories, and she loved the illustrations. These books are readily available at the library, so they can be free to use.   
• Biscuit books: These books are about a little puppy dog, and my daughter loved reading them.  There is lots of repetition of certain words in each book, which is great for beginning readers.  These books are also readily available at libraries.

• HBJ Treasury of Literature: These books are wonderful compilations of children's picture books that are from schools.  I found many of these at our local used bookstore.  Books with the pink binding are the ones to use for beginning readers, and they get progressively more complex with different binding colors.  These books are great because they have so much variety in each one, since there are stories by many different authors.
• Library books: Books from our local library are an integral part of our daily reading lessons.  They give my daughter the variety she craves, and this really helps in motivating her to read every day.

Reading Resources That Didn't Work for Us

• Dr Suess books: It almost seems sacrilegious to say it, but many of the Dr. Suess books didn't work for us in teaching reading.  Books like Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat use the same phrases extensively (such as "I do not like them, Sam I am"). My daughter would complain about reading the same things over and over, and that is a complaint I have myself when I read these books!  So I stopped including these in the stack of reading lesson books.  (Every kid is different, though, so I'm sure there are plenty of kids that do like to read such repetitious phrases.)
• Hooked on Phonics: We were given a used copy of the Hooked on Phonics program, and this is one resource we never much liked.  This system uses pictures to teach phonics sounds, such as a picture of a cat for the sound of the letter c. As described in The Well-Trained Mind, this can slow down the reading process because the child has to think of a picture and then the sound, rather than just knowing that the letter c makes the short c sound. I also did not like that the books were not quite decode-able from a phonics perspective (meaning that some random words were thrown in that my daughter wasn't ready to read or that broke the phonics rules, and these just made us both frustrated). 

What are your favorite resources for teaching reading?  Do you want to hear more about my approach to homeschool, or do you find this to be a topic of little interest?

Lemon Basil Chopped Summer Salad (GAPS : primal : gluten-free : nut-free : grain-free)

After a long, hot trip of running errands with the kids, I whipped up this simple chopped salad for lunch.  It takes less ten minutes to put together, and what a refreshing treat!  Great fresh flavors from the garden in the form of basil, tomatoes, and cucumbers combined with creamy avocado and the zest of fresh lemon juice.  Mmm, good!

Lemon Basil Chopped Summer Salad
Serves 1

• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 small cucumber, chopped
• 1/2 ripe avocado, chopped
• 10-15 fresh basil leaves (depending on how large the leaves are use more or less)
• fine-ground celtic sea salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 Tb shredded cheddar cheese 
• two lemon or lime wedges
• extra virgin olive oil*

1. Sprinkle a plate with the chopped tomato, cucumber, and avocado.
2. Tear the basil leaves and sprinkle them onto the chopped veggies.
3. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. 
4. Sprinkle the cheese over the top.  
5. Generously drizzle olive oil over it all, and then squeeze a lemon wedge or two over the top.
6. Serve and enjoy!

*The test of a good olive oil is that it should solidify in the fridge overnight.  I store most of my olive oil in the fridge for freshness, but do keep a small amount at room temperature for drizzling over salads.

Soft Molasses Cookies (gluten-free)

My husband loves molasses cookies, so I recently developed this recipe for him.  These cookies are soft and chewy, or if you freeze them they become more like a crispy gingersnap. My husband has proclaimed these to be the "best cookies ever"; although I've never been a huge fan of molasses cookies, I do enjoy these.

Soft Molasses Cookies
Makes about 20 cookies*

• 1 cup sucanat
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 Tb blackstrap molasses**
• 2 tsp organic vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
• 3/4 cup white rice flour*** (click here if you wonder why I use white rice instead of brown)
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp baking soda

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together the sucanat and softened butter for a few minutes.  
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the rice flour, coconut flour, salt, spices, and baking soda.  Whisk these all together and make sure there are no clumps.
3. Break the eggs into a measuring cup (preferably a glass one with a pour spout).  Add the vanilla to the eggs.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Add the molasses to the butter/sucanat mixture and mix it in.  Then, with the mixer running, pour in the eggs one at a time. (A stand mixer comes in very handy for adding these ingredients while it is running.)  Allow the first egg to be fully incorporated before adding the next egg.  Then mix well for another minute or so.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients, a little at a time, and mix until everything is incorporated.
7. Grease a cookie sheet with butter, or line it with parchment paper or a Silpat (I love to use Silpats, because the cookies never stick).
8. Use a spoon or scoop to scoop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.  There is no need to press these cookies down, as they will spread well on their own in the oven.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are a bit more browned.  (It may take a couple extra minutes if you are baking them on a stoneware.) If you have to cook subsequent batches on an already-warmed cookie sheet, start checking them for done-ness a couple minutes earlier.
10. Allow to cool a bit, then transfer to a cooling rack. These are particularly enjoyable with a big glass of raw milk.
11. These cookies can be stored at room temperature for a few days, in the freezer for a week, or in the freezer for months.

*Save time in the future by doubling this recipe!  Then just store the cookies in the freezer and you'll have plenty to last awhile.  They are delicious even straight from the freezer, and that makes them more like a crispy gingersnap instead of a soft cookie.
**One tablespoon of molasses may not seem like much, but since sucanat is dried sugar cane that still has the molasses in it, these cookies will have plenty of molasses flavor.  Blackstrap molasses is a great choice because of it high nutrient content.
***My family has found white rice to be much easier on digestion than brown rice as we transition off the GAPS Diet. 

Zucchini Spice Muffins (GAPS : primal : paleo : grain-free : gluten-free)

In this season of abundant summer squash, I often have fridge drawers loaded with zucchinis. One great way to use zucchini is to make muffins. These zucchini spice muffins are sweet and tasty. What a great way to eat your veggies!

I love that these muffins even pass the 5-year-old test, despite the fact that my daughter seems to have reached the stage of being suspicious of most green foods (which she used to love).

Zucchini Spice Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

• 1/2 cup butter or unrefined coconut oil
• 1/2 cup mild-flavored honey
• 3/4 tsp celtic sea salt 
• 6 eggs, preferably pasture-raised
• 1.5 tsp organic vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 dashes ground ginger
• dash of cloves
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 2-3 medium zucchinis (or one extra large zucchini)
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp baking soda (optional)*

1. Melt butter or coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly. 
2. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, salt, vanilla extract, almond extract, spices, and optional baking soda in a large bowl.  If using an immersion blender, pulse a few times to combine. Otherwise, mix to combine with a whisk or mixer.
3. Add the honey to the butter (or coconut oil) and stir slightly.  Pour this mixture into the wet ingredients and blend well with immersion blender or mixer.
4. Remove the ends from the zucchinis, and shred them with a box grater. There is no need to peel them before shredding. 
5. Measure out the coconut flour.  Since coconut flour clumps readily, it will need to be sifted if you are not using an immersion blender.**
6. Pour the coconut flour into the bowl with the wet ingredients.  Use an immersion blender or mixer to thoroughly combine all ingredients, making sure there are no lumps.  (Since coconut flour does not contain gluten, there is no worry of over-mixing it).
7. Fold in the shredded zucchinis and optional raisins.
8. Line a muffin tin with paper cups.  Scoop the muffin batter into the paper cups.  I like to use a 3-Tb scoop for this, but you could just use a large spoon.  The cups may be quite full if your zucchini was rather large, but this is fine.
9. Bake muffins in 325 degree oven for about 40-50 minutes, until muffins are set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 
10. Remove from oven and cool.  Delicious with a pat of butter and a big glass of raw milk or milk kefir!  Pair these muffins with bacon or eggs for a hearty meal.

Time-saving tips:
*I do not add baking soda to my muffins, as they seem to come out fluffy enough from mixing with an immersion blender (and Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride cautions about using too much baking soda as it can further deplete stomach acid and GAPS people tend to already have low stomach acid).  But if you want your muffins to be more fluffy, add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp baking soda in step 2.  More for more fluffy, and less for less fluffy. Watch out, though, that you don't fill your muffin cups very full if you add the baking soda.
**If you use an immersion blender to combine the ingredients, you can skip the step of sifting the coconut flour.  This also gives you less dirty dishes!
***While you are at it, why not make a double batch of muffins and throw one dozen into the freezer?  It doesn't take much more time, and they will make a very easy breakfast for some other week.

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GAPS Intro Diet Experiences and Tips

One topic I seem to get questions about frequently is the GAPS Intro Diet, which is an intensive diet that focuses on healing and sealing the gut walls.  This site has some great info on what foods are allowed on the Intro Diet. My family did the Intro diet after being on the Full GAPS Diet for several months, and I also repeated the intro diet again after about 8 months on GAPS. 

Positives of the Intro Diet
The Intro Diet:

• works amazingly to heal the gut quickly,
• is a very good way to tell for certain which foods your body has troubles with, and
• can result in amazing healing or even complete reversal of many gut-related health problems such as joint pain, digestive issues, allergies, etc.

Negatives of the Intro Diet
The biggest drawbacks of the Intro Diet are:

• It can be VERY difficult as it is a very restrictive diet, 
• It can cause intense die-off reactions as the bad bacteria in the gut are killed off and there is a shift to more healthy gut bacteria,
• It can take as little time as a few weeks or as long as several months, and you can't really predict ahead of time how long it will take you (you pay attention to your bodies cues as to when you should progress through the different levels of the Intro Diet).

Our Experiences on Intro
Round 1
My whole family did the intro diet after a few months on the Full GAPS Diet.  At the time, my daughter was 3&1/2. The hardest part of the Intro for my her was not being able to have any yogurt or milk.  But she and my husband generally breezed through the Intro Diet.

I was exclusively nursing my 8-month old son when we did Intro and I had a VERY difficult time of it.  I should caution here that Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride does NOT recommend that nursing mothers do the Intro Diet; unfortunately I somehow missed that and didn't figure it out until I had already started Intro.  I had a very hard time getting enough calories and not feeling like I was starving (I dropped 4-6 pounds a week, and it took me a month to get through intro, so that was over 16 pounds in one month).

I tried to quit the Intro, but couldn't because my stomach would absolutely not tolerate eating other foods.  This was a huge shock to me, as I didn't think I had many digestion problems (and neither my daughter or husband had the same problems on Intro).  So I rushed the Intro as much as possible because I was starving, but still had bad stomach cramping for hours every day because my body wasn't ready to introduce new foods yet. Despite these problems, I had great results from Intro and felt amazing once it was over.

Round 2
I repeated the Intro Diet after being on GAPS for about 8 months because I wanted to once again accelerate the healing.  The second time around, Intro was much easier for me because my infant was eating some foods and not relying on me for all of his calories.  I was also able to include kefir and yogurt (since we had already gone through the full dairy progression), and this really helped in making sure I didn't have that starving feeling like the first time around.  I was hugely encouraged the second time to see that I did not have the same problems introducing new foods during Intro, so I was able to progress through it quickly without the severe stomach cramps.
   
Tips for the Intro Diet

• Start with Full GAPS instead of the Intro Diet: Don't do the GAPS Intro Diet right away, as this can be totally overwhelming.  Instead take a few weeks or even a couple months to get used to the Full GAPS diet first. This will also help to keep die-off symptoms at bay.  
• If you are nursing, wait to do the Intro until your baby is eating a significant amount of food, or wait until you are done nursing altogether: Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride does not recommend that nursing women follow the Intro Diet as there is the potential for toxins released by the body to be passed to the baby through breastmilk.
• Stop taking probiotics when you start the Intro Diet: Even if you have already followed the Full GAPS Diet for a few months, the Intro Diet can still cause a die-off reaction as the bad bacteria are starved out.  Slowly re-introduce the probiotics after the first wave of die-off is over (or after a week or two if you can't tell whether or not there was die-off).  Or you could even wait until you've completed the intro before you slowly reintroduce the probiotics.
• Do the full dairy progression BEFORE you do the Intro Diet: Completing the dairy progression before the Intro Diet will give you more options rather than having to eliminate dairy along with so many other foods. The full dairy progression includes NO dairy/cheese/butter/yogurt/kefir for 4 weeks, followed by a sensitivity test (putting whey on the skin and leaving it overnight, then looking for signs of redness or irritation the next morning).  If there is no redness or irritation, then start slowly introducing homemade whey a little at a time (starting with 1 tsp per day for a few days and slowly increasing to 1/2 cup per day with meals), then slowly introducing homemade yogurt (starting with 1 tsp/day and working up to a cup or so), and then slowly introducing kefir, and then hard cheeses, butter, etc. Once you start Intro, cut back dairy to only yogurt and kefir.  Limit the yogurt and especially kefir in the early days of Intro as they can lead to more pronounced die-off symptoms. 
• Freeze some Intro-legal foods ahead of time: Freezing some Intro-legal foods will help in making sure that you will have plenty of food options, and will also save you a bit of cooking during Intro.  I like to freeze soups in single-serving glass containers that can be reheated easily in the toaster oven.
• Plan to make enough food to eat 6 meals a day: The foods allowed on the intro diet are so easily digestible that you may need to eat 6 or even more meals each day.  Plan for this so you aren't caught off-guard and unprepared.
• Plan to keep a pot of soup cooking at all times: The Intro Diet is centered around consuming broth, meats, and veggies.  Keeping a pot of soup or broth cooking at all times during Intro is a great way to save on active cooking time and to ensure that there is always food ready to eat. You can drink the broth throughout the day and easily add more meat and veggies as they are consumed. Keeping a pot or slow cooker going all the time can also make it easy to add some variety by pulling some out into another small pot and adding whatever additional veggies or seasonings you want for variety.  There is a great tutorial on a constantly-cooking, perpetual broth here. 
  
• Take some time off or plan nap breaks:Since the body is healing rapidly during the Intro Diet, you may feel more tired than usual.  If possible, plan to be able to take some time off work, or try to plan a nap break each day.  Also, try not to schedule too many activities, but rather take this time to relax and rest.
• Food variety: Having so few food options during the Intro Diet can make it tiresome to eat sometimes.  Egg yolks can be added to any bowl of soup to add great flavor and richness. Some ideas for variety are:
• Beef and veggie soup with peas, carrots, onions, zucchini, garlic
• Boiled chicken (including some chicken skin and fat) served with cooked peas, carrots, and onions, and a cup of broth
• Brisket with carrots and onions (leave the celery whole so you can easily discard it)
• Classic chicken soup with onions, carrots, and mushrooms (celery can be added whole for flavor and then discarded)
• Meatball and mushroom soup (omit the sour cream, replace butter with ghee or tallow)
• Chicken soup with carrots, onions, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and fresh ginger
• Beef soup with carrots, onions, and fresh dill
• Braised short ribs  (follow the time-crunch method and leave the celery whole so you can easily discard it)
• Chicken soup with tomato paste, garlic, carrots, onions, zucchini, green beans, peas, and oregano 
• Chicken and thyme soup (omit the creme fraiche and replace butter with ghee or chicken fat)
• Pureed butternut squash soup made with chicken broth, chicken fat, onion, garlic, ginger, honey, and nutmeg (since spices aren't allowed in the early stages of Intro, you can leave the nutmeg whole and discard it once the soup is done)
• Slow cooker beef fajitas (omit cheese and sour cream from garnish, serve in a bowl)
• Pizza soup made with beef, strained tomatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, basil, oregano, thyme, and a dash of red wine vinegar
• Herbed pork and cabbage stew