GAPS Diet Day 10: Celebrating on GAPS

Day 10 was Ben's birthday and he was really bummed that cake and ice cream wasn't going to be a part of this year's celebration. I know that seems drastic to some, but we are so fresh on this diet and yeast is a major concern for the whole family. Plus, on the pecanbread site there are several dessert recipes even on the early stages!

I roasted some lamb and served it with peas and salad. I tried roasting parsnips, but they weren't very good at all. So I improvised with peas. For the salad, I made a dressing out of a mashed avocado, olive oil, sea salt, garlic salt, and onion powder. Ben and I really liked it. I asked both boys to try it and Gabe decided he liked it as well and had it with his salad. Luke ate his salad plain. Neither of them complained or even batted an eye at anything I served! Miracles, I tell ya, miracles.

For dessert I made the Fourless Nut Butter Cake. The batter is so dry I decided to make cookies, instead. Then I put the extra in a small heart-shaped cake pan I have. The cookies were okay. Fine for a treat, anyway. The cake turned out better. More gooey and moist. I'll just do that from now on.

WENDY'S FLOURLESS PEANUT BUTTER CAKE
from Deanna

1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4-1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a cake pan well with butter. Blend all ingredients very thoroughly with electric mixer or belender for one minute on high. Reduce to "stir speed" and blend 2 minutes longer. Pour into cake pan and bake 20-30 minutes until light goldem brown. Test with toothpick. When it comes out clean, cake is done.

Tip: Don't over cook. Cake should be moist.

[caption id="attachment_798" align="aligncenter" width="169" caption="Nut Butter Cookies"][/caption]

Then I made the Peanut Butter Ice Cream. I didn't have high hopes for this. I'm made ice cream before. There are several ingredients. You have to boil milk and then add the rest of the stuff, then place in the freezer, then place in the machine, etc, etc. The Peanut Butter Ice Cream recipe gives next to no directions. I also didn't know what to expect as far as serving size. I decided to go ahead and double the batch. Yes, that meant separating 12 eggs. That's okay, I'm pretty much an egg cracking expert by now seeing as we go through 3-4 dozen a week. No joke. But I digress. I had placed the ice cream container in the freezer earlier in the day. I followed the directions in the recipe:

NUT BUTTER ICE CREAM
from Devorah

6 eggs separated
1/3 c. honey
1 tablespoon. vanilla
2 tablespoons nut butter

Beat yolks with honey Add vanilla and nut butter and beat again.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold whites into yolks. Put into ice cream maker OR Freeze for 1 1/2 hours.
Mix together again to blend and refreeze.
Keep mixing every 1/2 hour until it reaches ice cream consistency.

Tip: It may separate at first. It it will mix together eventually.

I put the ice cream into the container and then put it right into the machine and let it start churning. We let it go for about 40 minutes before checking it. It was looking good, but still very soupy. I let it go for another 30 minutes. This time I could tell it was setting up, but still had a way to go. On a hunch, I put it in the freezer and we ate dinner. We left it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and it was near perfect by the time we pulled it out. Sort of like soft serve. And it was GOOD! I'm glad it worked out so well. I'll definitely be making this again. Oh, and doubling the recipe was just right for our 4-quart machine. We had enough for two scoops for all four of us and some left over for a mommy and daddy late night treat one of these days!

Overall, I think my hubby had a nice birthday and no one felt deprived! Eating real food doesn't have to be boring!