Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

February 7, 2010 · Filed Under Slightly Indulgent, Suite of Sweets, dairy free, dessert, easy, gluten free, ice cream, recipe, sugar free, treats · 28 Comments

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays over at Amy’s Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free.

This recipe post is the kickoff of SSS … a Suite of Sweets for Sweethearts. With Valentine’s Day this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to share a variety of sweet recipes this week. Hopefully, you’ll find one to share with your sweetheart—whether that sweetheart is a significant other, a child, a friend, or anyone you want to feel loved.

When you saw that title, you may have thought that this recipe would make a better St. Patrick’s Day recipe instead of a Valentine’s Day one. I thought of that, but really I didn’t want to keep this recipe from you any longer. Mint chocolate chip ice cream is a favorite of many (including me!) and my version has a surprise ingredient. (I love surprise ingredients.)

I bought my ice cream maker late in the summer and I haven’t put it away for the winter. Admittedly, it’s been on a bit of a hiatus of late, but ice cream can still be enjoyed in cold weather. Mint chocolate chip ice cream is not just a favorite of mine; it’s my absolute favorite ice cream. If you gave me some for Valentine’s Day, that would definitely say love to me! And, maybe it’s the kid in me, but I really like the green varieties. They always taste better to me than the white versions, which also look rather blah. However, I know that food coloring is not a good thing, so I’ve been pondering a much healthier version of mint chocolate chip ice cream for some time.

We had a support group meeting a few months ago where a few of our members made green smoothies for all to sample. One member, Jennifer, made a green smoothie using bananas, spinach, and water. It was such a lovely pale green and the taste was mild and delicious. Everyone who sampled it just loved the taste. I found both its taste and color so very appealing and it kept surfacing in my mind, but I wasn’t sure why … at first. Then another member, Sharon, mentioned her love of mint chocolate chip ice cream in an email discussion on dairy-free ice cream (and my Snickerdoodle ice cream). It was after that conversation that I realized why those pale green smoothies kept popping into my head. A little bit later, I came across Katrina’s (Gluten Free Gidget) chocolate mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe. Katrina’s ice cream looked wonderful and I immediately made a quick version using chilled coconut milk (versus prechilling whole recipe) with honey (and without xanthan gum). We enjoyed it very much, but by definition, sadly, it was not green. Working on the success of that version though, I came up with this recipe for Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. It’s naturally gluten free, and dairy free, if dairy-free chocolate is added. It’s also refined sugar free if peppermint extract is used versus peppermint schnapps. (I don’t think any liquor is considered refined sugar free.) I love this ice cream. It’s green, and it’s delicious! And, I’m sure you’ve surmised what gives it its natural green coloring …

Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

2 3/4 cups full-fat coconut milk, chilled

2/3 cup honey (to taste, can use slightly less)

1/8 cup fresh spinach (the surprise ingredient! I used baby spinach leaves and discarded the stems)

1 tbsp peppermint schnapps (or 2 tsp peppermint extract)

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (use only about 1/2 cup if using regular-sized chocolate chips)

Mix ingredients except for chocolate chips in blender until there are no visible particles from the spinach leaves. Pour into ice cream maker. Churn for 20 minutes. Add chocolate chips and churn another 2 minutes until chips are mixed in.

Shirley’s Notes: I’ve learned from my fellow bloggers and experimentation that adding alcohol to ice cream ensures creaminess and less crystallization. I used Nestle Toll House semi-sweet mini morsels, which contain dairy. Enjoy Life chocolate chips are dairy free; another option is using a dairy-free chocolate bar that you’ve crushed into small pieces. The beauty of making ice cream without eggs is you can keep tasting your mix until you get a taste you like. This recipe made a pale green mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was so pale that I had a hard time getting photos that showed the green properly. But, in reality, it was a lovely color and the ice cream had a light, minty flavor enhanced by the little bits of chocolate.

I told Mr. GFE about the surprise ingredient in this Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream after he sampled it and murmured his approval. “Spinach? I am Yam what I Yam!” he said (that last part in his best Popeye voice, of course). Then he proceeded to happily eat his bowl of ice cream. This ice cream is irresistible to me. There is no spinach taste. (Mr. GFE would not have eaten it if there had been.) I know there’s not enough spinach included to really provide much in the way of nutrients, but that’s not really the point with this recipe. The main thing is my beloved, green Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream can be made easily (gfe! and dairy free easily—dfe!) without food coloring. It’s heavenly all by itself, but this ice cream would also make a very special topping for one of my chocolate desserts like 3-minute chocolate cakes, Mediterannean chocolate cake, or Katharine Hepburn brownies.

Hope you’ll follow along this week to check out all the sweet treats! Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for The Spunky Coconut Cookbook on my Out and About page here.

One last thing, and an important one … Lauren, who we all know and love as Celiac Teen, has finished her very generous ebook effort to raise money for Haiti’s earthquake recovery. Her ebook is titled A Hand for Haiti. It’s a compilation of 87 recipes from 71 bloggers who have shared the recipes that mean home to them. Please check out the details here to see if you’d like to purchase it and provide support to the Haitian people at the same time. I’m one of the bloggers who provided a recipe and I was so happy to be able to provide that tiny bit of input. Full credit for this awesome project goes to Lauren! Frankly, she just rocks, and I think it’s so timely that she just finished the ebook as we approach Valentine’s Day. As the song goes, “Think of your fellow man. Lend him a helping hand. Put a little love in your heart.”

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

Tags: dairy free, easy, GFE, gluten free, green, healthy, honey, recipe

The Spunky Coconut Cookbook

February 6, 2010 · Filed Under Out and About, appetizer, beverage, bread, breakfast, dairy free, dessert, entree, giveaway, gluten free, raw, sugar free, treats, vegan · 115 Comments

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Rachel R.! Rachel was selected by Random.org and her comment was: “I would love to win this; we’d like to incorporate more coconut into our diet. Thank you for hosting the giveaway.” My sincere thanks to all who entered the giveaway. Remember that The Spunky Coconut Cookbook can be purchased at Amazon here if you’d still like to get your own copy. Stay tuned for more giveaways that fit the gfe approach!

Full disclosure: I was provided a complimentary copy of The Spunky Coconut Cookbook by Kelly Brozyna. Kelly is also graciously offering the signed copy of her cookbook for the giveaway. However, I was not paid to write this review.

I am a huge fan of Kelly Brozyna and her blog, The Spunky Coconut, which I’ve followed for a long time. I’ve been consistently impressed with Kelly’s positive attitude, her willingness to reach out and help others, and her many simple, but extremely creative recipes. So, I was delighted when she published her cookbook—appropriately named, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook—last spring. As she states in her cookbook, her mission is to “create food that is so good that no one would ever know or care it was free of gluten, casein, and sugar.” I think you’ll see that Kelly does that when you make any of the recipes from her blog or her cookbook, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook. The cookbook includes 115 recipes, some of which in addition to being gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free, are also egg free and grain free. There are even raw and “raw-inspired” recipes. For so many with multiple food intolerances, these recipes are a true gift. You have only to read the comments on Kelly’s blog or check out the reviews of her cookbook on Amazon to know this is the case.

I’ve made a version of Kelly’s almond muffins, Almond Banana Carrot Muffins, shown above (recipe here). I had hoped to make her Custard Pie. It’s flourless and crustless—my favorite characteristics—how could I resist? But, alas, I found out I was short of eggs and I wasn’t about to brave the grocery store with the impending storm of the century. Here’s Kelly’s fabulous photo of her Custard Pie. Kelly even made a gluten-free, casein-free, and refined sugar-free version of my crustless coconut pie. Check her version out here.

My support group was honored to have Kelly speak (via Skype) at our October meeting. She shared her family’s journey to their current diet with us. Their tale (also shared in her cookbook) involves misdiagnoses, celiac, autism, attention deficit disorder, gluten sensitivity, and more. (She also shares their story in the introduction of her cookbook.) However, their new diet has allowed resolution of their symptoms in almost all cases.

Kelly talked to us about the cooking techniques she’s mastered over the last few years. She even did a cooking demo of her Flourless Brownies. Made from almond butter, Kelly says they are healthy enough to even eat for breakfast. Yes, the recipe is in her cookbook, along with a mouth-watering photo. (Kelly took every one of the gorgeous photos in her cookbook.)

By the way, one of our members has made a couple of Kelly’s recipes for our meetings. She made the Cider Cabbage & Kale dish for one and Almond & Orange Spinach Salad for another. I don’t think she took leftovers home either time. That is how good all of Kelly’s recipes are.

The deadline for the giveaway is Friday, February 12 (Abraham Lincoln’s birthday), 9:00 pm, Eastern. Here are the many ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Subscribe to my feed via email or RSS and leave a comment saying that you did.
3. Tweet about the giveaway sharing the link and leave a comment saying that you did.
4. Post a message on your Facebook page about the giveaway and leave a comment saying that you did.
5. Post about the giveaway on your blog and leave a comment saying that you did with your link.
6. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment saying that you did.
7. Become a fan of my new gfe-gluten free easily page on Facebook and leave a comment saying that you did.
8. Read and comment on either of these gfe discussion posts: Stop the Madness or Educate, Not Eviscerate. Also, leave a comment on this post saying that you did.

All entries will be tracked by the individual comments, so you must enter a separate comment to get an additional entry. One comment showing you did all these things will only be counted as one entry, so please remember to note each by separate entries.

Good luck!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

Tags: dairy free, easy, GFE, giveaway, gluten free, healthy, recipe

Wassail and Make It Fast, Cook It Slow Cookbook

January 21, 2010 · Filed Under Out and About, Progressive Dinner, beverage, blogherfood09, crockpot, dairy free, easy, giveaway, gluten free, holiday, recipe, slow cooker, soup · 339 Comments

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Thank you for entering.

Full disclosure: I was provided a complimentary copy of Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by the publisher. However, I was not paid to write this post/review.

Wassail. It’s not just for holidays any more. Seriously. Deliciously. Sometimes I think we do a huge disservice when we label dishes as holiday or seasonal favorites and only serve them during a very brief time window. Wassail, hot spiced punch, is one of those favorites. Traditionally served in the fall or over the holidays, it just seems to get forgotten once those have passed. But, it shouldn’t be. Last fall, one of my favorite bloggers and now my dear friend, Stephanie O’Dea, of A Year of Slow Cooking (and Totally Together Journal) posted a wassail recipe. A quick peek at the ingredients and I knew I had to make it. I doubled the recipe and served it to my support group for our next meeting. After one sip, I fell in love with this wassail. Our members loved it, too. I ladled what was left back into a glass jar with the help of a funnel and stored it in the refrigerator. Then I just reheated the wassail a mug at a time; it worked well. I even shared some with Mom and Dad when they stopped by for a visit; they thought it was great as well.

The focus of this month’s Gluten-Free Progressive Dinner Party (GFDP) is Light Winter Warmers. Everyone else participating quickly signed up for some fabulous soup recipes. I’m rarely short of soup ideas, but I wanted to be different. (Yes, I’m like that sometimes.) So I thought I’d share a warm beverage instead and Stephanie’s Wassail came to mind. Would wassail qualify as a light winter warmer I wondered? A quick check online showed that wassail actually means “be healthy.” Wassail it was then. This wassail is gluten free, dairy free, and even refined sugar free, but no worries, this wassail has no unusual ingredients and it tastes sensational. I made it again last night for our support group meeting. The folks who have had enjoyed it previously were very pleased to see my large oval crockpot full of golden liquid with sliced Cara Cara oranges and cinnamon sticks floating on top. Others were singing its praises after a few sips. They were juggling both mugs of wassail and mugs of chicken tortilla soup, but they didn’t mind. (There was also great salad, parmesan crisps from Kitchen Table Bakers, cornbread, raw butternut squash soup, fresh cooked greens, Udi’s whole grain bread, and desserts like banana bread, brownies, flourless chocolate orange cake, carrot cake, cupcakes, and even more that I can’t recall. Our meetings are always a feast!) I’ve only made this wassail recipe without the brandy, but I’m sure adding brandy as per Stephanie directions would be lovely, too.

Now here’s the really great news … not only do you get Stephanie’s wassail recipe, but she’s also donated a signed copy of her New York Times bestseller, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Slow Cooking, for a giveaway. Now, I love Stephanie’s book because it’s got gfe written all over it. Okay, not literally, but every single recipe is either naturally gluten free or gluten free by virtue of ensuring ingredients are gluten free. For example, in the classic comfort food dish, macaroni and cheese, one would just use a gluten-free pasta, such as the brown rice fusilli that Stephanie notes. For chicken pot pie (yes, in your slow cooker!), you’ll see gluten-free baking mix cited for biscuit mix. Want to make risotto in your slow cooker? There’s a recipe for that. Hey, there’s even a recipe for breakfast risotto with fruit and cinnamon and another for corn risotto (her kids called it “corn oatmeal”). How about granola? There’s a recipe. Unsatisfied with yogurt choices at your grocery store? Stephanie shows you how to make your own using the slow cooker. How about perfect gluten-free bread? Yep. Grab your favorite gluten-free bread mix or your own recipe and follow her instructions for some fresh, homemade bread. You might also remember Stephanie’s cornbread stuffing from our November Gluten-Free Progressive Dinner Party. I’ve made many of Stephanie’s recipes before and loved them all, but I’m anxious to try more. (You can read about some of the dishes I tried in my BlogHer Food Part I post.) Today I’m making Stephanie’s Salsa Chicken, and her Butternut Squash Soup (which is naturally gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free) is also in my plans. I could go on and on. Bottom line: You’ll want this book!

The deadline for the giveaway is Wednesday, January 27, 9:00 pm, Eastern. Here are the many ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Subscribe to my feed via email or RSS and leave a comment saying that you did.
3. Tweet about the giveaway sharing the link and leave a comment saying that you did.
4. Post a message on your Facebook page about the giveaway and leave a comment saying that you did.
5. Post about the giveaway on your blog and leave a comment saying that you did with your link.
6. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment saying that you did.
7. Become a fan of my new gfe-gluten free easily page on Facebook and leave a comment saying that you did. (I admit that seems a bit strange. Think blog friend, not fan. Someone who has fans also has paparazzi for goodness’ sake.)

And, here’s the wonderful recipe:

Wassail
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

2 quarts apple cider
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup honey
3 sticks cinnamon
2 whole cloves
1 whole orange, cut in rings
brandy, optional

Use a 4 – 6 quart slow cooker/crockpot. This recipe makes 9 cups of juice.

Put all of the ingredients into the crockpot (not the brandy). Wash your orange well, and cut off each end. Slice the remaining orange into rings, and float the pieces on the top of the juice.

Cook on high for 2 hours, or on low for about 4. You want the juice completely hot, and the flavor of the cloves and the cinnamon to have permeated.

Ladle into mugs. If you are going to add the brandy, put a shot into each mug, then top with the hot cider.

If serving to guests, provide a ladle, and keep the crockpot lid off, and the pot turned to low. If on warm with the lid off, it won’t stay quite hot enough.

Shared with permission from Stephanie O’Dea, A Year of Slow Cooking and Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

Shirley’s Notes: (Stephanie has used apple juice, which is shown in the photo, when apple cider was unavailable. Our bees’ honey tastes just right if this recipe, but if you don’t eat honey, feel free to experiment with another sweetener. Last, I find I have to keep my own slow cooker on “High” to keep the wassail hot enough. I do remove the top from time to time for periods of serving, but the “High” serving works best for me.)

Grab a mug and enjoy your wassail while checking out the other light winter warmers for the GFDP. All the entries have been sooo appealing. Earlier in the week, we enjoyed:

~Karen’s Creamy Potato and Leek Soup

~Alison’s Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Croutons

~Diane’s Winter Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup with Prosciutto Topping, plus her Mexican Seafood Soup, and

~Seamaiden’s Vegan Un-Chicken Roasted Vegetable Soup.

All amazing, huh?

Now let’s head over to Amy’s and Stephanie’s today. Think chili! Amy’s serving Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash and Sweet Chard. Stephanie’s slow cooked some Chicken Enchilada Chili. Tomorrow, we’re all meeting at Ali’s for Moroccan Chickpea and Potato Soup. What a party!

Enjoy and don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!