Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger: Kelly of The Spunky Coconut

Since late December, I have been trying to streamline trying new recipes better.  I can have serious over-ambition with trying new recipes, and some Sunday afternoon and evenings turn into cooking marathons that involve two cookbooks and recipes printed out from several blogs.  Sarah of the SHU box often meal-plans from one cookbook or an issue of a magazine (usually Clean Eating, which I keep meaning to check out, especially after I saw the Thai Chili Sarah made) so I thought I would try to put some parameters on my cooking over-ambition for new recipes.  So the first couple of weeks of January, all most of the new recipes I tried came from Kelly’s blog The Spunky Coconut and fabulous first book, by the same name:

The Spunky Coconut Cookbook: Gluten Free, Casein Free, Sugar Free

I was very lucky to win this cookbook as a result of participating in Gluten-Free Holidays late last year – I won it the week I submitted this Pumpkin Ice Cream.  Kelly’s recipes are all gluten-free, casein-free and sugar-free so it was heaps of fun to read her blog and cookbook since most recipes are accessible to me.  I made two recipes from her blog as part of my adoption of Kelly for Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger, an event hosted by Sea of Book of Yum. First, the Pineapple & Coconut Quinoa:

The only modifications I made was to reduce the coconut oil to one tablespoon and swap collards for spinach, since I can no longer find spinach at the farmer’s market.  I also made the Vanilla Shake. I could not find the protein powder Kelly recommends, so I used Vanilla Sun Warrior and skipped the dates in favor of a few drops of vanilla stevia.  The shake was rich and satisfying and made for a perfect late afternoon snack one weekend where dinner was not going to be until late:
Speaking of snacks, I made several from Kelly’s cookbook, The Spunky Coconut Cookbook.  First the Creamy Bean DIp:

I made the Creamy Bean Dip exactly like the recipe. I made a couple small alternations to the Funa, which is a Fake Tuna salad, made with sunflower seeds.  I skipped the kosher dill relish (since I do not like relish) and the dried dill in favor of a third of a cup of fresh dill. It worked perfectly.  I used the Funa in collard wraps as part of one of my lunchboxes:

I also made the Quinoa Almond Muffins from the cookbook, using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs, but otherwise following the recipe exactly as written:

This recipe also is available on Kelly’s blog. I loved these muffins.  They are not too sweet and a bit chewy from using quinoa flakes and coconut flour.  Kelly mentioned in the introduction to the muffins that they are remind her a bit of cornbread, and that is very true.  I made a half batch of the muffins and still got 8 small muffins, which was plenty to enjoy either as snacks of as a side to the Vegetarian Chili, another recipe from the book:

The Vegetarian Chili is a recipe that calls for a crockpot, but I had no trouble making it in the rice cooker.  I also used some grass-fed chicken breast from the farmer’s market to make Kelly’s Chicken Meatballs recipe which, despite not having any cheese, tastes delightfully cheese-like through the combination of flavors and the almond flour used in the recipe. I also used a duck egg instead of a chicken egg in this recipe and cut down the batch significantly:

Several of Kelly’s recipes lent themselves well to lunchboxes too.  Here is one where I included the Funa, Vegetarian Chili and a muffin:

Here is a lunchbox where I used the Creamy Bean Dip in a collard wrap and as a side, along with some Funa:

And one where I included Funa in collard wraps and some of the Pineapple and Coconut Quinoa recipe from the blog:

Adopting Kelly and cooking recipes from both her book and her blog was great fun.  Honestly, the only downside is that making Funa and the Creamy Bean Dip in the same week had me eat a lot of Grapeseed Vegenaise, which I usually only eat occasionally.  Now I know to make the recipes in different weeks, as they are both great.  Based on how much I enjoyed Kelly’s recipes I am definitely going to be acquiring Kelly’s new book soon:

The Spunky Coconut Grain-Free Baked Goods and Desserts: Gluten Free, Casein Free, and Often Egg Free

I am sure many people know about Kelly’s great blog and books, but on the off-chance they do not I am I am also submitting this post to the Gluten-Free Homemaker’s Gluten-Free Wednesday.  In addition to adopting Kelly, I also adopted Naomi of Straight Into Bed CakeFree and Dried this month. Be sure to check out the post here.  And here are my past adoption posts for this event, which I love participating in:

Amy of Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free

Maggie of She Let Them Eat Cake

Sea of Book of Yum

Ricki of Diet, Dessert and Dogs

Iris of The Daily Dietribe

Kim of Affairs of Living

***************

Chat with me on Twitter or Facebook.
Subscribe via RSS or email.
General Disclosures