gluten free Archives - Healthy Green Kitchen

High Protein Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This cake is much higher in protein, and much lower in carbohydrates and fat, than a typical cake. It’s dense, moist, and not overly sweet: leftovers keep very well in the refrigerator, or cut unfrosted cake into slices, wrap tightly, and freeze for later.

Serving size: 1/9th of an 8×8 inch cake
Per serving:
Calories: 188
Protein: 13.6 g
Carbohydrates: 16.2 g
Fat: 7.8 g

(If you bake your cake in a different size pan and cut it into more or fewer slices, the macros will be different!)

It’s been more than two years since I last wrote anything here at Healthy Green Kitchen. Did you miss me? (If you didn’t notice I was gone, I’m not the least bit offended lol.)

For me, the time really flew: I found lots and lots of things to do. I got certified as a nutrition coach, then a strength coach, and I’ve been working with clients in both capacities for some time now. Also: I’ve been running an Airbnb at a family-owned property in partnership with my dad, and I just packed my oldest child up to go to college.

My decision to stop blogging wasn’t a spur of the moment thing: I’d thought long and hard about it. And I remained certain I’d make the right decision about until just recently, when I realized that I miss creating and sharing recipes here. I’d never gotten around to taking the site down…so I’ve decided to give it another go.

To long-time (long ago?) readers of this blog: I really cannot thank you enough for sticking around. That said, I do want to give you a heads up that things are going to be a little different this time around (I’ve listed 3 new things you may notice below). Two years is a long time: I’m not the same and the way I cook and plan to run this blog isn’t going to be exactly the same.

Carrie Vitt is one of the sweetest people I know and she’s got a great new cookbook out called The Grain-Free Family Table: 125 Delicious Recipes for Fresh, Healthy Eating Every Day. Carrie has experienced huge improvements in various health issues via diet change: she follows a grain-free diet and the focus of this book is grain-free recipes.

While I don’t eat a grain-free diet, I really like this cookbook because it’s packed with protein-filled recipes as well as recipes that feature fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, grain alternatives, natural fats, and wholesome sweets. Moreover, the food photos, shot by Carrie, are beautiful, and my recipe for sauerkraut is on page 258!

I have made these stuffed peppers a few times now and my family enjoys them a lot. For the record, I have not been too keen on adopting the “cauliflower in lieu of rice” trend but I did “rice” the cauliflower for this recipe and I am glad I gave it a try (it’s really easy to do and it increases the veggie quotient of this dish). That said, feel free to substitute cooked rice for the cauliflower rice if you like, and if you don’t need the recipe to be grain free. (Note that this is not a Paleo cookbook, but Carrie gives suggestions for how to make each recipe Paleo/dairy free if that’s something you need.)

Happy 2015! I hope the coming year brings you all good things.

This is my second year belonging to a winter farm share. One of the items I’ve happily learned to count on each month is frozen organic blueberries. With these berries, I usually make smoothies, scones, and muffins.

Recently I was flipping through the new book Silvana’s Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Kitchen: Timeless Favorites Transformed. (Silvana is a friend of mine and she was sweet enough to give me a copy of her book.) The blueberry swirl muffins caught my eye: they feature both whole and swirled cooked blueberries, along with a lemon sugar topping, and looked positively delectable. So I gave them a try, and delectable they are!

I’ve been a big fan of Anya Kassoff’s blog Golubka for a long time. It’s a lovely site full of gorgeously-photographed, health-promoting recipes, many of which are vegan and raw. Anya’s new book The Vibrant Table is just as beautiful and inspiring as her blog.

I received The Vibrant Table from publisher Roost Books a few months back. I’ve flipped through the book many times, reading Anya’s intriguing stories and “ooh”ing and “aah”ing over the photos (taken by her talented daughter Masha Davydova), but I could not decide what to make. I recently settled on the Apricot and Lavender Tart, and was so happy that I did…it’s fabulous!

Anya’s tart crust recipe is gluten-free and while I changed up the flours, mine is gluten-free, too. This recipe is also vegan. It’s the perfect dessert for when you want something that’s very visually appealing, but isn’t particularly over the top in terms of calories. This tart is actually very light, though you can certainly up the decadence factor by serving it with some vanilla ice cream.

Be sure to use very ripe apricots, otherwise your tart won’t be as flavorful as it could be. I found organic apricots at my local natural foods store and used those; I bought my dried lavender flowers at my natural foods store, as well. If you don’t need the tart to be vegan, I imagine butter will work well in the crust.

My friend Ella writes and photographs the beautiful blog Pure Ella. Today, I am part of a group of bloggers helping Ella celebrate the upcoming birth of her second baby. Ella prefers to eat vegan and gluten free, so I made gluten-free and vegan vanilla cupcakes to bring to the virtual party :)

I adapted these treats from Minimalist Baker’s recipe for Strawberry Beet Cupcakes. They have a somewhat dense, moist texture and they are not too sweet; they are so yummy with the vegan buttercream. I was considering coloring the buttercream, and also piping it onto the cupcakes in a “fancier” way, but in the end I opted to honor Ella and keep things as natural as possible here. I love the look of the single candied violet on each cupcake and I hope Ella likes it too!

Though I’ve never baked with it before, I decided to try these with my homemade walnut milk as the liquid, and I think they came out great. The instructions for how to make the walnut milk are below, but know that you can substitute a different dairy-free milk, if you like. If you do, let me know how these work out…I’d love to know.

If you have no issue with dairy, I think you can go ahead and just use milk, and also butter instead of the dairy-free butter. Along the same lines, you don’t have to make these gluten free. Use regular flour instead of the gluten-free flour if gluten is not a problem for you.

High Protein Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

Silvana’s Gluten-free Blueberry Swirl Muffins

Apricot and Lavender Tart + A Giveaway

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes