coconut oil Archives

Homemade Granola With Quinoa & Coconut Chips

May 4, 2016 by Kristin

Can you believe it’s been over two years since I’ve made my favorite granola recipe?? The same recipe that I’ve raved about a lot lately. As if I made it all the time. As if I made it just the other day..

I parked myself in the kitchen over the weekend and whipped up a batch. I munched here, I munched there. I made granola desserts with milk, strawberries, and bananas. I made açaí smoothie bowls topped with granola, mango, strawberries and bananas. And before I knew it, I was left with crumbs. I had eaten my way through a seemingly impossible-to-finish jar of granola. And two years later, I’m just as pleased with this granola recipe as I was from the very start.

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Sweet Potatoes With Garlic & Basil Compound Butter

April 10, 2016 by Kristin

Sweet potatoes are one of those foods that don’t take a ton of effort to go from good to great. Take the time to oil and salt the skin. Take the time to pop them in the oven. And while that’s all happening, why not spend a few minutes of that time mixing up compound butter with fresh garlic and basil?

I picked up a basil plant at the grocery a few weeks ago and, although it’s almost naked, managed to find four decently sized leaves to chop. I crushed a couple cloves of garlic and found that I’d taken care of all the hard tasks. Making compound butter is a chore that barely takes minutes and is so worth the reward.

Garlic and basil compound butter went wonderfully with sweet potatoes but would also make white potatoes, steaks, and seafood extra delicious!

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Meyer Lemon Pudding

September 30, 2015 by Kristin

Lemon curd is one of my all time favorite eats. The love stemmed from baking lemon meringue pies with my grandmother every Thanksgiving and Christmas from the time I could balance on a step-stool to reach the stove. My little arm would get so tired from stirring the thick and bubbly filling. And I’d always pretend I scraped as much of the filling as I could into the pie shell, but really I’d leave a fair amount in the pan so I could eat the rest with a spoon.

Years later {and thankfully while living alone}, I discovered that lemon meringue pie filling and lemon curd were the same-ish. I started buying a fancy brand of lemon curd and eating it by the spoonful, similar to peanut butter, for dessert. But knowing how much butter is in lemon curd, it was a habit that needn’t continue.

This meyer lemon pudding recipe is a hybrid between lemon curd and stirred vanilla pudding. Tart like curd, creamy like pudding, but without any of the dairy that’s common in both. Made with coconut milk and coconut oil, this dessert is completely dairy free and completely delicious.

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Chef Kerstin Bellah’s Paleo Cacao Nib Cookies

August 23, 2015 by Kristin

The first time I met Kerstin, she was piping something, perfectly, in the St. Philip kitchen. She asked if I wanted to try what she was making and I responded that I couldn’t, that I wasn’t eating dairy or gluten. And with her head down, intently making the most uniform desserts you could possibly imagine, she said she didn’t either. I walked away {more than} a bit confused. Shortly after, my construction focus switched from St. Philip to Uchi Dallas. And that was that.

What feels like tens of years {but was actually only one year} later, we connected on Facebook after I photographed food for Juniper, a soon-to-be-open Austin restaurant where Kerstin is heading up pastry. And when I saw this picture of paleo cacao nib cookies on my newsfeed, the chain of thought went something like pretty cookies! -> paleo cookies? -> how can paleo cookies look so much like fancy pants bakery cookies? -> oh, they’re Kerstin’s cookies -> Kerstin is a pastry superhero -> I want to make fancy pants superhero paleo cookies -> I wonder if she’ll share the recipe?.

I “liked” the photo and sent an inquiring message, not knowing how receptive she’d be to sharing. And before another thought entered my busy bee brain, she replied that sharing the recipe would be awesome and she’d send the recipe over as soon as she got home.

To say I’ve been looking forward to baking these cookies all week is the most giant of understatements. After sixty-ish weekly Dallas trips and the recent flood of weekend getaways, my body is in major need of the good for you stuff. And as I get back on the gluten-free, dairy-free train, I’m so thankful to know that these delish cookies will have my back, keeping me company when temptation is near.

Thank you, Kerstin, for allowing me to share this recipe with the FoodFash world!

P.S. I used carob chips instead of cacao nibs because.. accident.

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