The Nourishing Gourmet

Nourishing. Satisfying. Gourmet.

GAPS Friendly

Maple Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Butter

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pumpkinseedbutter
Delectable. I took some soaked and dehydrated pumpkin seeds and threw them in a food processor with a bit of maple syrup (I’ve also tried honey with excellent results) salt, coconut oil and cinnamon. It’s a delicious treat! Especially when served with apple slices. I know it’s not super pretty, but the taste more than makes up for it.

If you have soaked and dehydrated pumpkin seeds on hand, this is very easy to throw together. Otherwise, you can toast raw pumpkin seeds in a pan over medium heat on the stove until they start to brown, which also helps reduce enzyme inhibitors.

I’ve used a fair amount of cinnamon in this recipe because pumpkin seeds have a robust flavor and can handle it. I personally think that one tablespoon of maple syrup makes it sweet enough, but doesn’t give as good “maple flavor” as I want, hence the two tablespoons. But play around with the ratios, if you want. This will get pretty hard in the refrigerator because of the coconut oil, so let it soften at room temperature for a while before you serve it.

Whatever you do, make sure you put it out of reach of little people! After Elena and I had enjoyed amble servings of this treat, I took a shower. When I came out, she had already taken a spoon and polished the rest of it off! Oops. But yes, it’s that good. You will want to eat it off a spoon.

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Mango Orange Smoothie

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smoothie

It’s been quite cold here recently, even cold enough to freeze our chickens water dish! But yet I still find myself making smoothies (and perhaps adding a layer or two of warmth with a jacket or sweater while I indulge myself). This smoothie is so very delicious that I could drink it everyday! Coconut milk is blended with bananas, oranges and mango- an incredible mix of flavors. My husband made this up for us the other night and I told him that we needed to take a picture of it to put on my blog because it’s so good!

It’s pretty sweet just from the fruit. In fact I think that this could easy qualify as a dessert. It’s also a great smoothie for this time of year because oranges are in season right now (and so holiday-ish) and mangos are in season on the other side of the world (this is when buying local isn’t an option).

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The Healthy $1 Menu: Peasant Lentil & Kale Soup

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lentils
My computer crashed when loading all of my pretty pictures of this soup. Therefore, you only get a boring picture of dry lentils. Sorry!
This simple “peasant” soup is packed full of lentils, rice, kale, and simple flavorings to make a yummy and easy soup that costs less than a dollar per serving. It was the perfect warming lunch for us twice this last week! Joel has been taking the leftovers with him to school/work in a thermo. Yummy!

I have a whole list of meal ideas for this new series, but when I threw together this simple soup and realized how frugal it was, I couldn’t help share it!

I didn’t spare quality at all in this dish, using organic everything. It would be even a lot more inexpensive if you, for example, didn’t use organic vinegar (which cost a whole 76 cents to use), or if you got the kale for cheaper. I’ve said it here before, but I don’t try to eat a king’s diet on a peasant’s budget, because if I were to try, I would end up buying poor quality food. Instead I try to concentrate on frugal and nourishing peasant food. This is an example of high quality peasant food!

Here’s the cost analysis:

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Pumpkin Latté (Caffeine, Dairy, and Sugar Free)

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A warm drink is in order this time of year. And what’s more fitting than a pumpkin latté? About every coffee shop has one, including Starbucks. My version is probably not as sweet compared to coffee shops, but we’ve been sipping them down rapidly! Too often, we feel that we can’t have certain treats because they are unhealthy, when really we can easily make our own healthy version of it!

For mine, I used Teeccino a caffeine free coffee substitute, real pumpkin (read here how to roast your own for pies and lattés!) , spices, vanilla and sweetened it with honey or stevia. For my dairy free daughter, I use coconut milk, and sometimes for Joel and I, I’ve used raw whole milk-heated just until warm.

In the picture above, you see it served with Spiced Macaroons. A lovely combination!

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