Multiple studies reported that organ meat is much richer in minerals than meat. It is estimated that consuming about 100 g of organ meat per week is very healthy. The liver from pork has somewhat stronger taste while the chicken liver is mild in its flavor. If you are new to it, I would suggest to go for chicken organ meats first.

As far as I don’t have a problem with e.g. liver fried with onion as it is, I know people who feel aversion to it. This is why grinding organ meat might be a really good idea.

Recently, I tried liver burgers and liver-pork burgers and I must admit they were much nicer to eat than the whole liver pieces.

What do you need to make Liver-Pork Burgers

Ingredients: Pork meat, liver, onion, spices (I used salt and ground cumin).

My proportion between meat:liver were about 4 to 1

Utensils: Meat grinding machine (or you get your meat ground in shop and process raw liver in a kitchen processor) and a frying pan

How I made my patties

• I ground the raw pork meat first
• Then I ground the raw liver
• I ground an onion in the same machine
• After, I mixed all components together with a big pinch of salt and a table spoon of ground cumin
• I used spoon to transfer the mixture on the hot oil as it is more liquid than a regular meat for patties
• The patties shouldn’t be too big as they could be too fragile to turn them up side down on the pan

They are best when served with fried or caramelized onion :-)

Enjoy cooking!

Kati xxx

The best kind of dinner is the dinner that prepares itself, am I right :-) ? And these beef rolls are exactly such independent gals :D

Well, actually meat production is a burden for our environment. So are the cars. But Loesje’s ..are just super cute ;-)

Btw. Did you hear of that great plan which will be introduced in France in 2016? Supermarkets are not allowed to throw away food which is just before or after the expiration date. It has to be send to charity or farmers who will use it as a feed for animals. Now, that is caring about environment if you ask me, no food waste!

~Back to Beef Rolls~

What do you need to make them

Ingredients: thin beef slices, raw bacon, onions, pickles and mayonnaise

Appliances: an oven dish and an oven ;-)

Tip: Did you know that red meat contains pro-cancer components but they are totally blocked when eating green vegetables with meat at the same meal?

What you need to do

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Cut long thin pieces of onion, pickle and bacon. Spread slices of beef and sprinkle some salt (and other spices of your choice) on it. Then take a stripe of bacon, pickle and onion and roll them in the beef. Place some mayonnaise on top of the meat if you like. It isn’t necessary though, beef won’t get burn in the oven without it.

What you can’t see on the picture is that I sometimes close the ends of the roll with toothsticks so the juices stay inside of the roll. It is not necessary but it sure makes the rolls more juicy.

What you get

Tasty meat that looks fancy while it is actually very easy to make.

I keep trying to photograph them when they come out of the oven but I always can’t wait to eat them rather than dance with the camera around them. So if you like to see them baked, I suggest to make them yourself ;-)

Rock your kitchen and enjoy the meal!

Cheers,

Kati xxx

Do your intestines tolerate the shop bought bouillon? If yes, then you can consider yourself lucky. If not, you can consider yourself lucky too because I will share with you a recipe for the best homemade chicken soup ever ;-)

What ingredients are needed to make the soup

• Chicken – the best would be from a farm, freely hopping and eating organic feed, such a little happy guy :D
• Carrots – 2
• Parsley root – 1
• Onions – 2 small
• Leek – 1
• Green celery or root celery – 2-3 stalks
• Bay leaves – 2 big
• *Allspice seeds – 5-6
• *Black pepper seeds – 5-6
• Salt – a generous pinch
• Parsley (green) chopped
• Water – about 2-3 liters
• Optional: rice noodles

! *For Autoimmune Protocol leave allspice and pepper seeds out.

..and appliances

• Big pot
• Cutting board, knife to peel and cut vegetables
• Colander to wash vegetables

How to make the chicken soup

I place the entire chicken (cleaned from the internal organs) in a pot with 2-3 liters of cold water and a pinch of salt & I start cooking it on a middle gas pit.

While chicken is being boiled I peel, wash and cut vegetables. I add them to the chicken when the meat is already boiled (after an hour or so) and I continue to boil. At the same time I also add the bay leaves, allspice and black pepper. I let it all cook for 2-4 hours on the smallest gas pit. The longer it cooks the better quality bouillon it is.

Afterwards, I remove chicken gently. It falls apart because the nutrients from joints and other connective tissues are well dissolved in the bouillon. I clean the chicken from bones and skin and place the cleaned meat back to the soup.

I serve it hot with fresh green parsley leaves and rice noodles. It is very healthy to drink as well.

I wish you Happy & Healthy cooking!

Kati xxx

Eggplant is a beautiful vegetable but I have never been a huge fan because of its ‘odd’ taxture, so I thought until today. I was experimenting with my lunch and managed to create really tasty salad with just 4 ingredients! The inspiration came from a cookbook ‘Against All Grains, meals made simple’ by Danielle Walker’s. I remember her pictures posted on FB when she was on her way to the publisher’s office and now I have her book at home :D Her recipe is ‘Roasted eggplant’ so not my salad but my idea was born when paging her book so I think she deserves the mentioning. And the book is full of very easy recipes – just what I like best!

 What I used to make my salad

Ingredients

• Half an eggplant,
• 3-4 table spoons of bacon pieces
• Tomato
• 4-5 basilica leaves
• a bit of ghee for frying

Utensils:   Frying pan and a spatula, cutting board and a knife.

What I did

• I fried bacon on a little bit of ghee
• Then added chopped eggplant to the fried bacon and fried together until the eggplant became nice and soft
• In a meantime I chopped tomato and basilica leaves
• Mixed all together and enjoyed with a pinch of salt

Enjoy cooking :-)

Kati xxx

How do you like to eat chicory (witlof)? I used to prepare it in two ways: in an oven dish with ground meat and potatoes or on a pan with honey and pine nuts. Now I have a better recipe. Chicory wrapped in bacon!

What is needed to make the chicory in bacon

Ingredients: chicory, bacon, almond milk, ghee

Utensils: an oven dish and an oven :D

..and how to make it

Cut chicory in half, wrap each half of chicory in two slices of bacon and place them next to each other in an oven dish. Add big spoon of ghee and a generous splash of almond milk to the dish so the chicory is resting on the liquids. If you don’t mind refined flours, you can add some flour to milk and ghee to create a kind of bechamel sauce. You don’t need to salt it as the bacon will lose some of its flavor to the sauce. Place everything to the preheated oven (about 160-170 degrees Celsius). My chicory was ready after 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them and remove before the bacon is burnt ;-)

What to expect

Soft and juicy chicory – on the picture they look little dry but it is far from the truth!

Don’t you just feel like making them? :D

Bon appetit!

Kati xxx

This year (at Easter), I made my own pate for the first time. I read the recipe from Bezglutenowamama.pl (here), I called my mum for more tips and I went to shop to buy all ingredients.

Such homemade pate is fully nutritious and delicious. It contains no preservatives or other functional ingredients.

Tips from my mum

• Don’t use lean pork. Make sure there is some fat on it (so the pate is not dry)
• Cook beef 30 min longer than pork
• Don’t boil/fry liver – place it in boiled water and let it cool down (boiled liver will taste bitter)
• Beef, pork and bacon can be boiled together
• It is enough to grind meat once
• You can omit butter in recipe if you used enough bacon and fatty piece of pork
• You can use any liver, e.g. from pork or chicken
• Don’t  add salt to the boiling meat

Ingredients

• Beef – 500 g
• Pork – 500 g
• Raw bacon – 500 g
• Liver (I used chicken) – 500 g
• Eggs – 5
• Butter (in room temperature) – 250 g <*for Paleo leave it our or use ghee, lard, more bacon or replace with more vegetables>
• Carrots – 2 big ones
• Onions- 2
• Parsnip – 2
• Salt
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Pepper

The machine (meat mincer) I use to process meat (see picture).

Any other kitchen processor you might have at home will do a good job too.

Preparation steps

1. Boil water and add beef to it. Cook for 30 min. Then, add pork, bacon, carrot and parsnip (optional: onion) to it and boil for another 45-60 min.
2. Remove boiled meat from the water and put into the boiled hot water the liver. Let it stay in water until cold.
3. Optional: you can fry onion or let it boil with meat. I boiled mine.
4. Grind the cooled down meat, liver and vegetables together once. Mix together well.
5. Add eggs, butter and spices to the mix. Make sure all is well combined. You can use spoon to mix it or your hand.
6. Place the mix in a baking form (spread butter on it first or use baking paper) and decorate (for example with vegetables or herbs)
7. Bake pate with a cover for 30 min at 180 °C. After, uncover it and bake it for another 30-45 min until golden brown.

From the ingredients listed in the recipe I made two forms as shown on the picture above.

Feel free to modify the recipe. You don’t eat pork? Leave it out! It is a great opportunity to incorporate organ meat in a diet without the ‘bleh’ effect ;-) Play with ingredients and their amounts for the taste that suits you best.

Cheers,

Kati xxx

I thought of trying millet since it is a good source of some very important nutrients, including copper, manganese, phosphorus, but especially magnesium – a mineral that acts as a co-factor for more than 300 enzymes, including enzymes involved in the body’s use of glucose and insulin secretion.

The phosphorus from millet participate in the structure of every cell in the body. It plays a role in formation of the mineral matrix of bone. The phosphorus is an essential component of numerous other life-critical compounds including adenosine triphosphate or ATP, the molecule that is the energy currency of the body. Phosphorus is an important component of nucleic acids, the building blocks of the genetic code. In addition, the metabolism of lipids relies on phosphorus, and phosphorus is an essential component of lipid-containing structures such as cell membranes and nervous system structures.

Highlights

• Gluten free, dairy free, soy free, nuts free
• Only 2-3 main ingredients
• Nutritious (rich in magnesium)
• The meat-filled balls are a good source of iron
• Very easy to make

Ingredients (for 3-4 persons /about 20 balls)

• Millet – 400 g (1 ½ of a cup)
• Water – 2x the volume of millet – 1 ½ of a cup of millet needs 3 cups of water
• Tapioca flour – a couple of spoons for dough (depends on consistency of the boiled millet; I used 3 spoons) and about 1 cup for rolling the balls
• Optional: egg – one raw
• Salt – ½ of a tea spoon to the dough
• Filling: I used ground meat (around 250 g) with dry herbs but anything would do – stay creative!
• Fat – to fry ground meat
• Salty boiling water to cook raw balls after they are formed

Appliances

• A bowls – to mix the dough
• A plate – to form and store the balls
• A spoon – to scoop a dough to your hand
• A kitchen pot – to boil the balls
• A slotted spoon – to fish the boiled balls out of the boiling water
• A kitchen processor – to grind boiled millet (you can also use fork or your hand)

Tips

• It’s very important to wash your millet before cooking. Otherwise it can end up quite bitter!
• If you don’t have kitchen processor you can mash the millet with your hand or fork
• You can replace tapioca flour with potato starch flour (or any other starchy flour)
• You can probably make them from mashed potatoes with gluten free universal flour but then they are less nutritious

Preparation steps

• Boil water and add washed millet to it. Wash millet under cold running water. Afterwards, wash it with hot tap water. Only then, you can boil millet in a clean batch of water. Use 3 cups of water per 1 ½ of a cup of millet. Let it boil on a small stove burner until millet uptakes all the water (about 10-15 min). Afterwards switch off the fire and let it rest under the cover for another 10-15 minutes.
• In a meantime, fry the meat (if that is your filling). Do not forget to add spices/salt.
• Place the boiled millet in a kitchen processor and pulse it a couple of times. You should obtain smooth mashed dough.

• Place millet with one raw egg and 2-3 spoons of tapioca flour in a bowl and mix together (use your hand or a spatula). If the consistency is too lose you need to add more flour. You should get in the end elastic sticky dough.

• Take a big plate and cover it with tapioca flour. Take some of the flour in your hands (sorry, you need to get a bit dirty when making this dish :D). Then, scoop some of the dough (you could use spoon or your hand) and flatten it in your palm. Try to make it round and not to thin/not to thick. Sprinkle some of the tapioca flour on both sides of the round ‘pancake’ in your palm.
• Scoop some of the filling (like the fried ground meat) in the middle of the dough and try to close it. Slowly and gently make a ball out of it. After a couple, it will be very easy. Keep going until all the balls are done. Make sure, the surface is well sprinkled with flour.

• In a meantime, boil a pot of salty water.
• Place gently all balls in the boiling water and boil on a small stove burner. Wait until the balls start floating just under the surface of the water. It is a sign that the balls are ready.

• The meat-filled balls taste best with a sauce or with fried onion.

Have fun making your own filled millet balls :-) You won’t regret making them! Let me know how it worked out for you,

• Not a boring cabbage dish
• Supports healing of intestinal lining (cabbage contains anti-inflammatory isothiocyanates)
• Dinner or lunch
• Preparation time about 1 hour

Ingredients

• Fresh cabbage (you can use any type of white cabbage)
• Carrot –  1 big or 2 small
• Fresh dill – as much as you want (I added two small boxes from AH)
• Tomato puree – one small pot/tin
• A piece of raw or smoked bacon – as much as you want
• Pepper –  a pinch
• Salt – a pinch
• Laurel –  1-2 leaves
• Dry dill
• Allspice (English pepper) – 4-5 seeds
• Optional: a couple of fresh tomatoes cut in blocks, onion

Needed appliance

• A cutting board
• A knife
• A frying pan
• A spatula
• A cooking pot with a cover
• A kitchen rasper

Tips

• I often make a vegetarian version – without bacon
• You can add fresh tomatoes (for a richer taste)
• If you don’t have fresh dill, you could use only the dry one but the taste is much better when you use the fresh herb
• My mum would add dried mushroom to it but I don’t fancy it that much
• If you don’t have or you don’t like bacon, you can use other meat like pork or beef
• After steaming your cabbage stew, let it cool down overnight
• Eat it warm
• You can eat it with bread or boiled potatoes or on its own

Preparation steps

1. Cut cabbage in thin stripes
2. Place cut cabbage with dry dill, pepper, salt, laurel, English pepper in a cooking pot. Add 1 and ½ cups of cold water, cover and stew for 20-30 min on a small gas burner. Mix it from time to time
3. In the meantime, fry bacon
4. Cut dill, and rasp carrots
5. When cabbage starts losing water (after 20-30 min), add rasped carrots, fresh dill and fried bacon
6. Mix everything together and add tomato puree
7. Stew everything a bit longer (another 20-30 minutes)
8. Ideally: let it cool dawn (the best is to leave it overnight in a fridge). <or enjoy it immediately>
9. Before serving, warm it up
10. Enjoy on its own, with bread or with boiled potatoes

• Only 3 ingredients!
• Preparation ~ 20 minutes!
• Gluten free, lactose free and soy free!
• Easy and tasty!

Ingredients

• Rice noodles
• Biological bacon pieces
• Fava beans (I use the beans in a glass pot from AH) (in Dutch tuinbonen)

Tips

• You can use the type of rice noodles that don’t have to be boiled. To prepare these noodles – all you need is to boil water and let the noodles soak in it for ~ 10-15 minutes!
• Of course, you can use any gluten free noodles/pasta.
• You can use frozen fava beans instead of these in a pot (e.g. from AH).
•  You do not need fat for frying. The bacon fat is more than enough.
• I do not add salt or any spices – bacon is usually salty enough and gives a wonderful flavor!
• Instead of fava beans you could also use Brussels sprout.

Needed appliances

• A frying pan and a spatula
• A pot/kettle to boil water 

Preparation steps

1. Boil water
2. Add rice noodles to the hot water and let it soak for ~ 10-15 minutes
3. Heat a frying pan and fry bacon pieces
4. Add fava beans (drained) to the fried bacon
5. Mix drained noodles with bacon and fava beans

[See image gallery at glutenfreelady.nl]

Enjoy your meal,