Blueberry Lemon Scones (gluten-free, nut-free, vegan)

I finally have the recipe many of you have been waiting for....the gluten-free, berry scone recipe you've seen me post about on Instagram over the last few weeks. Although I used raspberries once, they are out of season right now and just too darn expensive to keep using. Instead, I've been making these with the frozen blueberries we have in our freezer from last summer's harvest. You could use any berry in this scone recipe. Try blackberry, chopped strawberries, marionberry, or blueberries. I've also tested this recipe using diced (very small) Granny Smith apples with added cinnamon, which were quite delicious as well. Oh...and this recipe is xanthan-gum free of course!

If you haven't seen our brand new Whole Life Nutrition website already then you might want to check it out: www.WholeLifeNutrition.net. We've begun to add articles and videos, and will be adding a lot more content and features in the coming weeks so stay tuned. You can sign up for our newsletter there and get our Free Clean Eating Cookbook and Grocery Shopping Guide if you would like (all new gluten-free, whole foods recipes).

Watermelon Whole Fruit Popsicles

Cool down this summer with homemade fruit popsicles! You'll save money and reduce wasteful packaging by making your own. Plus, by adding in pieces of whole fruit, these healthy treats become quite beautiful and irresistible!

I've made homemade popsicles so many ways! You can puree whole fruit and pour it into molds, use any type of freshly pressed juice, or use mixtures of coconut milk or yogurt and fresh fruit purees swirled together. The other week when we had a whole counter full of freshly picked organic strawberries, I made strawberry fruit pops by chopping up a bunch of fresh strawberries, placing them into the molds and then filling them up the rest of the way with fermented apple juice. Does anyone else ferment their apple juice or is it just me? We accidentally did it a couple of years ago by leaving the jug on the counter for a few days because there was no room in the fridge. It is so bubbly and delicious, with far less sugar! Now if I buy a glass jug of organic apple juice I always leave it out to ferment, though too long and you begin to get Hard Cider!

This recipe is acceptable to enjoy during Phase 2 and 3 of our Elimination Diet! Yes you can have healthy treats such as these lovely popsicles while on a restrictive diet!

Raw Berry Tart with a Coconut Pastry Cream (vegan, gluten-free)

I have something for you, just in time for 4th of July celebrations.....and no cooking required! I used to think that making tarts was a complicated process, but it is really quite simple. You will need a 9 or 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, which can be found on amazon.com or your local kitchen store. For this recipe I use my standard nut-date crust which is pressed into the pan. Then the filling is added and topped with whatever berries or fresh fruit you have on hand. Raw tarts come together so quickly!

For the pastry cream, I use coconut butter, which is made from both the oil and the meat. We like the brand Artisana, but you can use others. Sometimes it is labeled with different names such as coconut mana or coconut cream concentrate, but it is all the same thing.

Low Sugar Green Smoothie

Okay, this smoothie doesn't look too green now does it? Berries and greens blended up equal brown. Although the color may not look too appetizing, the flavor is amazing! Our 4-year old twin boys drink it with a straw. They now race to see who is done first. We hear "done" and then "done" and then "no, I was done first" and then "I'm not playing first game." Just so you all know, drinking your smoothie as fast as you can is not optimal for digestion. It is best to let each sip sit in your mouth for at least 30 seconds to allow for enzymes such as amylase to begin to break down the fruit sugars.

We've been asked many times to offer green smoothie recipes that don't contain too much fruit sugar. Normally we use two tart apples and two pears in each smoothie, but by using berries and citrus instead you can lower the glycemic index and keep the overall FODMAP content much lower. FODMAPs are short-chain carbohydrates found in fruits such as apples and pears (and many other foods) that can contribute to gas, bloating, and other GI issues for those who are sensitive, or who have imbalanced gut microflora.

The combination of the berries, cherries, and greens create a superfood smoothie! No need to buy expensive, exotic fruits such as the acai berry! Did you know that blueberry consumption can lead to an increase in beneficial bifidobacterium in the gut? They are also effective at eradicating harmful, pathogenic bacteria in the gut. Another reason to make blueberries a regular part of your diet!

Use a glass or stainless steel straw for children. Straws seem to make green smoothies much more fun to drink!

Buckwheat Hazelnut Pancakes

If you have been following my blog for a while you'll know that I am a big fan of buckwheat. I buy the raw groats and then grind them myself in the dry container of my Vitamix. Raw Buckwheat Groats are soft and can also be easily ground in a coffee grinder if you don't happen to have a Vitamix. The resulting flour is very mild, creating tender, flavorful pancakes or baked goods. The buckwheat flour you find in the stores is made from roasted buckwheat groats, creating a very strong flavor, which most people don't like. Another thing about raw buckwheat is that it has its own binding power. You'll notice as you mix the batter together it becomes rather "stringy" much like a gluten flour. For this reason, it doesn't require any gums, although pancakes never do.

Buckwheat is not a grain, but rather a seed. It actually has compounds in it that help regulate blood sugar. For this reason it is a great flour to use if you are diabetic.

One of our children's favorite breakfast recipes is the Buckwheat Pancake recipe in my first book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. A few months ago I began adding Hazelnut Meal to the batter to add extra protein and flavor (for this pregnant mama). I never measure, because if the first pancake doesn't turn out quite right you can easily adjust the batter. I finally nailed down the recipe to share with you, just in time for Mother's Day!

Blueberry-Cucumber Smoothie

Blueberries and cucumbers are in season right now and with these hot sunny days, a light, refreshing smoothie is simply delightful. Sometimes I like to add everything but the kitchen sink to my smoothies, but a friend of mine who was recently visiting suggested these ingredients and urged me to keep it simple. So, reluctantly, I added just 3 ingredients. Now this is one of our favorite summertime smoothies. Cucumbers are naturally cooling and blueberries are very high in antioxidants, helping to protect our bodies from the damaging effect of the sun's rays.

Our children think this smoothie is divine! When they woke up this morning I asked them what they would like for breakfast, they emphatically exclaimed, "blueberry-cucumber smoothie mom!" Well, we made green smoothies and oatmeal, but will enjoy the cucumber smoothie for a snack later on.

This smoothie recipe can be used during Phase 1: DETOX (and all phases) of the Elimination Diet, which includes bone broths, soups, green smoothies, and fresh-pressed vegetable juices. I am sure you could get very creative here and add some greens to increase the nutrition. I would start by adding a few handfuls of fresh spinach.

How to Make Honey-Sweetened Jam

Homemade jam is usually so full of sugar, but it doesn't have to be! Using Pomona's Pectin, one can make a low-sugar, honey-sweetened, or fruit juice-sweetened homemade jam. This particular pectin comes from citrus peel. The jelling is activated by calcium water (mono calcium phosphate) which comes with the pectin. It is so easy to make jam from all of your freshly picked fruit of the season. Making and canning jam is one of the great ways to preserve the harvest!

Last year I experimented quite a bit with some of the hundreds of pounds of fruit we harvested. I made an awesome Vanilla-Plum Jam sweetened with coconut sugar, a Honey-Sweetened Blueberry Jam, Spiced Peach Jam made without pectin and with sugar, Blueberry-Lemon Jam made with a small amount of pureed unripe, immature apples as the pectin source (unripe apples are high in pectin), a tart Italian Plum-Agave Jam, and Cherry-Peach Jam sweetened with grape juice concentrate. Let me tell you, homemade jam makes for many wonderful Christmas gifts!

Super Antioxidant Smoothie

We've been drinking a lot of these yummy, dark purple smoothies lately. Since fresh fruit is in abundance right now, why not?

For those of you on the elimination diet, this drink is great during the two day green smoothie cleanse. Yes, I know, it's not green, but it still works, especially if you are feeling bored with the color green and need a change of pace. It does actually have a little spinach in it so we could technically call it a green smoothie, hey!

The beautiful purple color in this smoothie comes from Anthocyanins (from Greek: (anthos) = flower + (kyanos) = blue). Anthocyanins are plant chemicals that act as powerful antioxidants, in fact, they are over 40 times more potent that vitamins A and C!

Fruits and vegetables are the staff of life. They contain signaling molecules that tell our genes how to operate. So if we are sitting on the couch all day eating potato chips and drinking soda, our genes respond in a way that sets the stage for disease. But if we are drinking purple (or green) smoothies, thinking wonderful thoughts, enjoying life, and eating whole grains, beans, and other amazing whole foods, our genes say hooray, let's be healthy and vibrant!

Honey Kissed Peach (or Blueberry) Muffins

The frost peaches are in and we have surely picked our share. 130 pounds that is! I have spent the weekend pitting, cutting, freezing, and dehydrating these sweet, juicy little morsels of summer nutrition. A way to remember summer, eat local, reduce our carbon footprint? Or just enjoy fresh!

We have also been picking blueberries, blackberries, Italian plums, apples, pears, and red plums. Over this past weekend I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning processing it all and making jam. Spiced peach jam, cherry-peach jam, blueberry-honey jam, and blueberry-apple-lemon jam. You can make a sugar-free jam by using Pomona's pectin. So far I have used grape juice concentrate and honey to sweeten my jams. I also made one with sugar just to see what the difference was in taste and texture.

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Blueberry Syrup

Today I thought I would share a very simple pancake syrup recipe that is full of blueberry lusciousness. This antioxidant-rich, blueish-purple syrup is great atop freshly made pancakes and also can be used as a Phase 2 Elimination Diet recipe!

My favorite way to use this syrup is to pour it over a stack of homemade, gluten-free buckwheat pancakes. Though lately I have found a few additional creative ways to use it. You see, it is blueberry season out here, and every year we pick at least 100 pounds of these sweet, juicy morsels. That means every year around this time our fridge is stocked with fresh blueberries and a jar of this syrup. Usually I don't measure, but since I wanted to share it with you, I painstakingly took the time to measure out all four ingredients. I know, I work hard don't I? :)

For a Phase 2 elimination diet-friendly breakfast, try pouring this syrup over a bowl of cooked short grain brown rice or quinoa and top with toasted pumpkin seeds and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Enjoy!

Festive 4th of July Treats!

Summer BBQ's, potato salad, layered jell-o salads, fireflies, and sparklers flashing through the humid July night sky....these are my 4th of July memories growing up in the Midwest.

Since layered jell-o salads just aren't in my cooking repertoire anymore I have devised something even more delicious...and good for you!

I decided to take two recipes from my cookbook and combine them; the Cherry Apple Pudding and the Blueberry Fruit Pie. I used the ratios for the pudding and the ingredients for the pie to create these fancy, festive little treats. The juice glasses can be found at Fred Meyers for $1.49 each, though I have found them at Goodwill before too. You can use any small, clear glass you have on hand though.

All of the berries, except the blueberries, are from my garden. If you decide to make this for the 4th of July, then you can prepare the filling and cashew cream up to a day before and chill in the refrigerator, covered. Add the fruit up to 3 hours before serving.