My Heart Healthy and Lectin Free Kitchen

Earlier this week a friend came to me with a recipe for Caramel-Apple Bread and asked me if I could make it Gluten and Sugar Free.  Well of course I could!  So in honor of Tammy, here is a recipe that is just perfect for the Autumn Season.

I'm holding a cooking class at my home this weekend, and this is the main dish and vegetable that we will be fixing.

This recipe is so flexible.  As long as you use the same total amount of flour, 3 cups, you can mix a different flour in and out depending on what your taster likes.   You can add half as much vanilla and add something like coconut or almond extract.   If you're not a fan of cinnamon, then use something else (nutmeg, cloves, ginger or nothing).  Add-ins can be anything you like, but if you are diabetic like my husband and I try and stay away from dried fruits (like raisins) they are just little packets of sugar waiting to affect your glucose levels.   The xanthan gum, arrowroot starch/flour, and tapioca starch/flour are essential to the recipe.  Since there is no gluten in these muffins, other ingredients must be added to hold them together. Make sure the applesauce is made with no sugar added. That being said, go make a batch and tell the rest of us how they turned out.

Earlier this year two of my friends took a guided tour to Israel.  They saw and ate many things, but the food they remembered the most were the "Jerusalem Style Bagels" that they ate most mornings for breakfast.   I found the traditional recipe online, and reworked it to be Plant Paradox friendly.  They are always a big hit when I make them, like I did yesterday for my Sunday morning Bible class.   I eat them dipped in oil, oil & vinegar, spread with butter, or a soft goat cheese product.  The following recipe can also be modified to include sourdough starter (3/4 cup and reduce the flour by about the same amount.)  Enjoy making them, and please enjoy eating them! 😄

Eating as well or better at home as I do in a nice sit-down restaurant has always been my goal as a homemaker.  (Yes, even though I had a challenging career, I was still a "maker of a home" for my family; and proud of it too!) Now that it is only my husband and I (all the kids have flown the coop and have families of their own now)  We don't always eat a 3-4 course meal (protein, veggie, and carbs).  Sometimes it is all combined into one item.  Even if it is a one item meal, I still want it to look good and taste good - I don't want to feel like I have short changed myself with a mediocre meal when I have the skills to make it memorable.   A few weeks ago we created a Lectin-Free version of a veggie fritter we saw on Facebook.  They turned out really well.  I ate mine with some homemade sugar-free ketchup.  My husband chose worcestershire sauce.  I think a creamy tahini  sauce would also be good with them, but I was out of ...

A few months back my husband found a recipe for a creamy soup with chicken on Facebook.  It did look good, so I rewrote it to be Lectin-Free compliant.  My husband made some for dinner tonight and I thought you might enjoy eating it too.   Let me know if you liked it or perhaps there is a step in the recipe itself that was confusing.  My goal is to make all my recipes understandable so you too can fix them.

     Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins.  They have been around for thousands of years.       Through trial and error, any animal, including man, learned how to avoid the ones that made them feel bad, and eat the ones that didn't.  For a detailed discussion of lectins purchase the book, The Plant Paradox by Steven Gundry, MD.       There is a specific lectin that has gained a lot of attention these days, but is really just a minor player:  gluten .   Many people assume that manufactured foods that are called "gluten-free" are also grain free.  Not so.  Where wheat, barley, and rye are eliminated, when you look at ingredients, you will probably find they have been replaced with corn, rice, or teff; which all contain forms of lectins similar to gluten.  Other products often found in them may include soy or other bean flours, which of course also contain lectins.     ...

A few years ago, I shut down my blog on "Tiny Homes".  I didn't think I would ever have another blog, but this week a Facebook friend suggested instead of having a private group, I should jump into the deep water and begin a blog for those trying to eat Lectin Free, Heart Healthy, Sugar Free, Keto, and Paleo Friendly.  (Did I cover just about everything!?! LOL) So Here I go . . .On October 13, 2017 after finishing the book, "The Plant Paradox" by Dr. Steven Gundry, I threw out everything I thought I knew about living  heart healthy and sugar free .  ("Heart Healthy and Sugar Free" was the name of a private FB group I started in 2016)   Almost a year later, having worn out my book, and having embraced the ideas he wrote about as my own "Normal" way of living, I find myself 40 pounds lighter, and more clear minded than I have been in decades.  I just want to scream out, where were the experts in 1984 when I first started experiencing diff...