New Recipe Source #1:

Mark Sisson, a warm and generous leader in the primal community, offers two e-cookbooks free of charge. What’s the catch? Not much. You sign up to receive the e-books and in the process are automatically subscribed to his newsletter. I waited a few weeks before posting this resource so that I could report exactly on what this ends up looking like in real life. To me, it looks great! Mark’s newsletters are only occasional and also very relevant to GAPS! (It has been uncanny to me that he -who I’ve never met- and I have twice posted on the same theme within hours of each other.) And the e-cookbooks are truly wonderful! While most of the awesome recipes are very GAPS-friendly, they have of course been developed for a slightly different program thus not all align 100% with GAPS, so use these resources when you’ve become very familiar with what is and is not included on GAPS. The occasional non-GAPS ingredient -for example, tamari- can be left out or substituted. The nice thing about primal diet recipes is the emphasis on meats and veggies, inspiring more of this within a GAPS menu than the nut-based dishes some of tend to gravitate toward.

New Recipe Resource #2

GAPS shares many overlaps with both The Primal Diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the list of foods upon which GAPS was developed from. Erin over at No More Crohn’s, one of my favourite SCD recipe sites, has just sent the following in her newsletter e-announcement:

I’m writing to let you know of the three new booklets available at NoMoreCrohns.com. My mom has been whipping up new recipes and ideas and putting them into three beautiful booklets that you can purchase on our website. They are downloadable and can be printed off as soon as you buy them so you can enjoy them right away! Have a Cooking Day, Do Some Cooking for Now & Later, and Beautiful Brunches will inspire you, speed up your meal preparation, and provide you with delicious new recipes! One of my family’s favorites is the Golden Waffles recipe in Beautiful Brunches! 

Have a Cooking Day: Have your own “Dream Dinners” workshop at home, using six delicious SCD recipes from our website (Greek Pork Chops, Mexican Pork Stew, Steak Fajitas, Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Oven Fried Chicken and Mom’s Meatloaf). We tell you exactly how to do it and include a full shopping list! Ideal for advance preparation of meals that will make your life a whole lot easier!  12 pages.

Do Some Cooking For Now & Later: Make a large quantity of one of our three main SCD legal recipes for Roasted Chicken Breasts, Taco Meat and Make-Ahead Mini Meatballs. You’ll be way ahead of the game for weeks to come as you use the precooked and frozen meat when it’s time to make dinner. We give you 15 different recipes that use your prepared meats. The Now & Later booklet also contains additional new recipes for side dishes and two desserts.  16 pages.

Beautiful Brunches: Brunch is a meal meant for relaxing! Enjoy scrumptous SCD food that’s half breakfast and half lunch. Try our eggs, waffles, muffins, smoothies and our gorgeous Fresh Orange Yogurt Tart! Economical egg dishes also make a delicious dinner entree. Our Beautiful Brunches booklet contains more than 23 recipes and we know many will become your favorites. 16 pages.

To learn more and to buy your downloadable copy of each of these booklets, click here: http://nomorecrohns.com/BookletsandPublications.aspx

More…

For more amazing recipe and recipe planning resources, be sure to check the links under the ‘Recipe And Menu Planners’subheading on this page.

Thank You!

I want to extend a big, heartfelt thanks to each of you who have followed up on my invitation to support my ability to maintain this blog, answer questions, and develop additional resources. In response, folks have linked to this site, tweeted about it, and/or purchased additional copies to donate to individuals or resource centers, while another kind fellow named Mark made a direct donation -with a lovely note to boot- to support the work! I am truly grateful to each and every one of you!

For more awesome GAPS blogs, see the relevant section on this blog’s support page. (Do you have one I don’t have listed? Let me know via the comments section below! If it’s GAPS-focused and otherwise neutral, I’ll gladly list it!)

I was skeptical at first, thinking its ingredients were so familiar in our household’s repetoire, how could it take me beyond my usual fare? I followed the recipe, though, and WOW! We loved it! (In fact, a few days later I overheard my partner exclaiming to a health food store that they needed to make this dish for their deli!) Like no other GAPS recipe I’ve prepared, this one took me back to the days of enjoying the deep flavour of my much loved Mexican fast food -but this was so healthy!

The recipe mixed and matched some of my favourite ingredients in a new way, and added oregano -a flavour I would never have considered for a spicy beef dish. Variations: I used fresh vs powdered garlic and onions, sauteeing these in a pan before adding the beef, skipped the optional yogurt, and spooned some salsa on top.

Fess up, author of the taco salad! Which cookbook contributer were you, please? And thanks for the fantastic meal!!

Love having a book of recipes I don’t have to adapt for the GAPS diet! Love the coil ring format for easy reading while I’m cooking. Love the organization of it into common sense categories! Love the simple and straight-forward instructions! Love that it arrived just in time for the feasting season! Most of all I love the time I will save when I don’t have to search for recipes on the Internet before I spend even more time adapting what I find. [L.F., British Columbia, Canada]

By jove, I think she likes it!

A huge thanks to all those who made this book happen! (When I get my copy back, I’ll be listing and linking to the contributers directly.)

For more information about the Internal Bliss cookbook, or to order a copy, click here.
For more GAPS blogs and GAPS-friendly recipe sources, see the second comment below.

Two, International Nutrition has published the first ever GAPS cookbook! For details, click here.

I haven’t received my copies of these books yet, but when I do, I’ll share my impressions. For readers ready to snag these new resources, I didn’t want anyone waiting unnecessarily for this wonderful news!

Can’t open pdfs? View the instructions here:

Equipment Needed Per Medium Cabbage

• mixing container (large bowl, pot, etc)
• grater (hand grater, electric food processor, spiralizer, etc)
• sea salt. Note: Every salt has a different impact on ferments, so each type of salt is used in different amounts. For more information, you can Google this topic. Per medium cabbage, I use approximately one tablespoon of Sel Marin de Geurande unrefined sea salt from Brittany.
• black pepper (pre-ground or freshly crushed peppercorns)
• wide mouth mason jar(s) providing 1.5 litre of space (two one-litre jars or one 1/5 litre jar)
• tight-fitting lid

Recipes

Ginger Garlic Veg

• whole green cabbage
• several carrots
• two or three garlic cloves
• peeled ginger
• one whole onion

Curried Carrot Kraut

With thanks to Vibrant Living raw foods guidebook, by James Levin and Natalie Cederquist. As they note in their book, “The carrots provide a bit of sweetness which complements the curry, as well as contributing to a lovely orange colour. A delicious full-flavoured kraut, great as a side dish or over a salad.” Vibrant Living has two more veggie ferment recipes plus six for nut yogurts and cheeses.

• whole green cabbage
• six to seven medium carrots
• one small onion
• one garlic clove
• two tablespoons of curry powder

Dill Kraut

Fantastic with mixed greens, cabbage rolls, etc. Mix with goat yogurt for a sour cream ‘n dill chip or veggie dip!

• whole green cabbage
• ½ large onion
• two garlic cloves
• 1.5 tablespoon of dried dill weed (or other amount of fresh)

Directions

• Remove the two outmost cabbage leaves and set aside (this will be used later)
• Shred the vegetables listed in your preferred recipe, above
• If doing the curried or dill kraut, add the curry or dill now
• Add sea salt. Again, every salt has a different impact on ferments, so each type of salt is used in different amounts. For more information, you can Google this topic. Per medium cabbage, I use approximately one tablespoon of Sel Marin de Geurande unrefined sea salt from Brittany.
• Add ground black pepper or crushed peppercorns, to taste
• Mix this up a bit and start kneading. You can get extra leverage by placing the mixing bowl on the floor and rocking your whole body over it. Note: Some people skip the kneading altogether by simply adding salt water or salted cabbage or carrot juice over the batch.
• After a few minutes, juices will start to form
• Continue kneading until firmly pressing your hands flat over the batch draws juices over much of your hands.
• Stuff the mixture into jar(s), leaving at least one inch of air space at the top
• Press the batch down, to get most of the air pockets out. Juice will rise to the top.
• Press pieces of whole cabbage leaves on top, right to the edges of the jar (even going up the sides of the jar a bit), using it to “seal” the top layer of shredded veggies. The juice will rise up over much of the leaves.
• With at least 1″ of air space between the veggies and lid, close the jar tightly
• Place the jar in an area away from direct sunlight, in an area generally 18-24 Celsius. (In an Excalibur dehydrator, set the machine to its lowest temperature point, ie. just barely ‘on’. Here it runs at mostly 20/21, which is perfect.)
• Only after 4-7 days (4 if in an area of the house running closer to 24 degrees; 7 in an area running closer to 18-21), open the jar. It will likely bubble to the eyes and fizzle to the ears. Remove and throw out or eat the top cabbage leaves. Put the jar in the fridge. The batch can be eaten any time from this point forward, but will continue to deepen in flavour over subsequent weeks. It will keep in the fridge for several months.

1. Slowly heat full fat milk (of any animal) to 180 Fahrenheit.
2. Let cool to 68-77 Fahrenheit (20-25 Celsius).
3. Add starter. Stir to completely dissolve. A hand whisk works well.
4. Pour into containers. (Canning jars work well.)
5. Cover. (Canning jar lids work well.)
6. Set into a place that brings the yogurt (not just the surrounding air) back up to, then maintaining, 95-110 F for 24-36 hours (the latter for people especially sensitive to lactose).

Equipment that may keep your yogurt sufficiently warm includes: oven with a regular lightbulb in it (be sure to remove this bulb before again using the oven as intended); box near a heat source; heating pad; dehydrator; some commercial yogurt makers plugged into a dimming extension.

Thursday, August 27
Portland, OR
Portland Fermentation Festival
6:00-8:00 PM
Portland celebrates its fermentation revival with tastings, demos, and culture giveaways.
Bring Ferments to share if you can.
FREE!
Ecotrust’s Billy Frank Jr. Conference Center
721 NW 9th Ave.
For further info email pdxfermentfest@gmail.com or call 503-575-9069.

Tuesday, September 22-Saturday, September 26
Woodbury, TN
Intensive Fermentation Workshop
A week of intensive, hands-on fermentation experience. Learn techniques for making sauerkraut, kimchi, and other vegetable ferments, mead (honey wine), koji, miso, tempeh, dairy and grain ferments, tonic beverages, and more. This will be held at Sandor’s new production and teaching kitchen at a friend’s farm. Over the course of the four-day workshop students will actively participate in the preparation of fairly large batches of each ferment. There will be ample time for explaining the processes and techniques, and answering questions. We have the flexibility to prepare other types of ferments as well, depending upon participants’ interests. This is an opportunity for people with some fermentation experience to intensively immerse themselves in the practice.

http://www.wildfermentation.com/events.php?id=132

Thursday, October 29-Saturday, October 31
Woodbury, TN
Wild Foods and Fermentation Workshop
This three-day workshop combines fermentation demonstrations and hands-on practice with lots of time outdoors foraging for wild edibles. Sandor will be co-teaching this workshop with Frank Cook, a gifted plant explorer, healer, and teacher. At the end of the workshop Saturday afternoon, students are invited to join us in a caravan to the Sequatchie Valley Institute, an hour and a half to the Southeast in Whitwell, TN, for their annual “Wine in the Woods” event to taste dozens of homemade wines and meads at a spectacularly gorgeous Tennessee homestead.

http://www.wildfermentation.com/events.php?id=144

November 7
Red Boiling Springs, TN
Kimchi-Making Harvest Festival
Long Hungry Creek Farm

http://www.barefootfarmer.com/

Saturday, November 14
Woodbury, TN
Miso-Making Day at Little Short Mountain Farm
11:00AM-3:00PM
Learn how to make miso, Japanese style fermented bean paste, and some ways to cook with it.
$25 includes a lunch of various miso-based delicacies.
Space is limited so reserve your spot early.
Clean-up work-trades available. Email fffworkshops@wildfermentation.com.

http://www.wildfermentation.com/events.php?id=151

Last night, I made a tomato soup that worked out very well. (We ate at a potluck and people laughed hard to see my son just shoveling it into his little mouth.) A casein-free version of that dish is posted here and a with-casein version is posted here. For more cold soup ideas, click here.