Seasoning Cast Iron and Roasted Chicken Recipe

I finally had a chance to go through a box of cast iron pans that we've picked up at yard sales. I found this large Cabela's pan, I think it's used for camping. I decided to season and start using it. I scrubbed it down with steel wool, rinsed, and dried it. I used some homemade ghee for the seasoning and also a little local beeswax. I made some pancakes on it the next day and nothing stuck! I wished I had started using this pan sooner. My old cast iron skillet is bumpy and stuff always stuck to it.

I remembered reading somewhere that someone said to cook a whole chicken in cast iron to season it so I decided to give it a shot.

Cast Iron Roasted Chicken

1 tsp himalayan salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp homemade ghee
1 whole organic chicken
Optional:
Green beans
Onions
Carrots

Put cast iron skillet in oven. Preheat to 425F.

Rinse and dry chicken.  Rub salt and pepper all over.

When oven is preheated, add 1 tsp ghee to pan an then drop chicken in. Spread the remaining ghee on the top of the chicken.

Bake for 1 hour. After about 45 minutes I added some frozen green beans around the chicken to cook on the drippings. I would have added carrots and onions but didn't have any.

The chicken and green beans came out great!  And my cast iron skillet got some great new seasoning!

Fudgy Carob Brownie Recipe (gluten-free, egg-free)

Since I am still nursing my son, I am still avoiding chocolate because of the caffeine content. I have tried

countless carob brownie recipes to satisfy my cravings and one worked for a while but I want something fudgy and unhealthy tasting.

I briefly experimented with amaranth and quickly learned that cooked amaranth is very gooey, not like quinoa at all. So I put it in the back of the pantry and forgot about it. While trying to find a recipe for a fudgy carob brownie I came across amaranth and realized it would be perfect in a brownie. I didn't have any eggs to spare since our hens aren't really laying much right now so this recipe is also egg free. These are the most fudgy gluten-free brownies I have ever made!

Fudgy Carob Brownie Recipe (gluten-free, egg-free, refined sugar free)

1/2 cup amaranth flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup carob powder

1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp coconut sugar or honey or 1/2 tsp more stevia
1/4 tsp powdered stevia leaf
1/4 cup coconut oil
1-1 1/2 cups raw milk at room temperature
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease an 8 x 4 or similar size pan.

Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the coconut oil and 1 cup of milk. Mix well. Add more milk if it's too thick. Mix in apple cider vinegar. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Curing Tooth Decay and Xylitol Marshmallows

We have been battling tooth decay on our little one's teeth for the last two months now. After having a dentist tell me that she wants to fill cavities and seal my son's teeth with toxic materials, I did some research and came across remineralizing teeth. I read Rami Nigel's, Curing Tooth Decay, and have been following his protocol. We started with homemade bone broths with a raw egg yolk mixed in each serving and FCLO/BO blend. Raw goat milk kefir and cheeses were already in our diet but I stopped offering him a fruit kefir smoothie. He actually prefers the kefir plain. I slowly added cell salts and xylitol to his water. We went grain-free and I made some remineralizing toothpaste. His teeth have not gotten gotten worse so we have halted the decay.

We did remove a lot of the fruit from out diets. Although I do use fruit to bribe him into his car seat and into the house. I feel bad but sometimes I have no choice.  Since I had bought a bag of xylitol I have been looking for recipes in which to use it.  I first used it on the icing for his birthday cake which was a success. But I needed a snack that I could offer him instead of fruit. I came across xylitol marshmallows.  I have never made marshmallows so I finally decided to try making it. As I licked the bowl clean, it reminded me of the fluff that I used to eat as a kid. So I already thought it was a success.

Once it set, I cut the marshmallows into little squares and dipped them into so soaked and dehydrated raw almonds that I ground up.  My son opened the pantry looking for bananas which we are out of, so I offered him a marshmallow. He has never had candy like treats (he won't eat xylitol mints) so he cautiously tried it and ... he came back for more! I finally have a tooth friendly treat for him!

Here is the recipe I used. I halved the recipe and I did not use the stevia. Next time, I am going to try to omit the honey and up the xylitol to replace the honey. There is also this recipe which does not use egg whites that I am going to try too.

Brown Rice Sunflower Seed Cracker Recipe

I have been making rennet cheeses lately with all the goat milk I have been getting from our goats. My husband has never liked chevre but I decided to make it anyway because of how little work is involved. He tried it after I made it and liked it but wanted crackers to eat it with. So I looked for a cracker recipe. I used this recipe as a guide but changed the ingredients to use what I have on hand. We have been out of almonds so I used raw sunflower seeds. I just used a little salt for flavor because some of the chevre I made is flavored with sweet ingredients.

As a snack, we topped these crackers with the plain chevre. Then for dessert, I topped these crackers with chevre and a drizzle of honey and my husband topped his with chevre and dried fig...so delicious! We finished the crackers in one day, so I will probably double the batch next time.

Brown Rice Sunflower Seed Cracker Recipe


1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Grease a baking sheet.

Grind up the sunflower seeds. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the liquid ingredients and mix until a dough is formed. Make two balls of dough.

Put one ball of dough in between two sheets of wax or parchment paper and roll out to 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. Pull off the top sheet of paper and flip the dough onto the baking sheet. Use a pizza cutter to cut crackers into 1 to 1 1/2 inch squares. Take the edges off and add to the other ball of dough and repeat.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. (I rolled mine real thin and baked for 15 minutes.)

Let cool on baking sheet.

Makes 30-35 crackers.

This article is shared at Allergy Free Wednesdays.

Gluten-Free Egg-Free Banana Bread

I have been waiting for the two bananas on my counter to turn extra ripe so I can make banana bread. I usually make Elana's banana bread recipe but I did not have any eggs to spare so I tried to make a new egg free version with the ingredients I had on hand. This banana bread came out great! You can't tell that there are no eggs and it was NOT crumbly. I store it in the fridge and when I want a slice, I put it in the toaster oven an top with a sliver of butter.

Gluten-Free Egg-Free Banana Bread Recipe

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup flaxseed
1/4 cup white rice flour
2 tbsp ground chia seed
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup soaked almonds or walnuts, chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp stevia powder
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup milk*

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grind up flaxseed and chia seed (I used a magic bullet.) Add milk to the flaxseed and chia. In another bowl, mix together the brown rice flour, white rice flour, stevia, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix well. In a separate bowl, mash bananas and add vanilla, milk, and baking soda. Mix together the coconut oil, banana mixture and flour mixture. Fold in nuts. Pour into greased 8 x 4 glass loaf dish.

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

* I have used sour cow's milk and fresh goat milk from my goats!

Milking Goats

Chloe

We had been trying to milk Chloe for a week an were only getting an ounce or two each time. I did try separating her for a few hours during the day from her son, but he kept getting out of the pen I put him in. We thought Chloe just wasn't a good milker and decided to put her up for sale. A registered milking goat came up on craigslist so we went to take a look at her. The seller (we told her the issues we were having with Chloe) let us milk 2 other goats as well as the one for sale just so we could see the differences. We also got to see how much milk Bambi was giving. We decided that we would take Bambi, we were just going to wait until the weekend to pick her up. She also told us to try separating Chloe from her son at night and then milk her in the morning. We separated them on Friday night.

Bambi

So Saturday morning we tried milking Chloe in the morning (We had to wait until Saturday so my husband could help me.) I could feel the milk in her udder! So I milked her. She finished all the grains while milking so I got her more and kept milking. We ended up with 12 ounces of milk! (All this time we thought that we needed a registered dairy goat to get milk; we were so wrong, You just need to learn the correct procedures to milking a goat, which Bambi's owner taught us.) So I took all the ads I posted to sell her down.

Chloe has been giving me 12-14 ounces of milk every morning since then, which has only been a few days. I am very pleased with her. She is also much better on the milk stand as she will only kick a few times and doesn't fight me while trying to milk her.

We have decided to sell her son. We are going to have to keep him separate if we want to use him for breeding purposes which means we will have to get him a male goat friend to keep him company in a separate pen. But we already know he can get out if he really wants to. Also, I have to use him to bribe Chloe on the milk stand in the mornings - too much work! Not to mention, my husband would have to build a pen for him and we would always worry about him getting out and knocking one of our goats up.

We Got Nigerian Dwarf Goats

Baby getting milk

We already put a deposit down on a baby Nigerian dwarf doeling goat a few weeks ago when we picked up a few chickens from Okeechobee. My husband had a week off of work so he built a shelter and fenced in a section of our property for the goat. When he was done, we called the lady to pick up the goat but she has not been weaned from her momma yet so we have to wait. We decided that we also want a goat that is giving milk now as we have to wait until our first goat is a year old to breed her and be able to get milk.

2 week old buck, JJ

Off to craigslist I went looking for a goat that's already giving milk. I didn't have much luck in our area, so I searched further away. I found a momma and baby nigerian for sale but they were four hours away. My husband said no at first (he would have been the one to go pick them up as our son was not ready for an eight hour road trip.) I searched for a couple of days and found nothing else so I convinced hubby to let me email the listing for the momma and baby. My husband spent a whole day driving just to pick them up. They are so beautiful!

Momma goat, Chloe

We will try milking her in a week because we need to build a milking stand. They are still getting used to their new owners. The mom will eat out of our hands and will let us pet her while she is eating grain. I am hoping she will be more comfortable with us by the time we start milking her. For now, her baby is drinking her milk.