Yams Gourmet Babylon Style

Thanksgiving Yams with Orange Cranberry Relish

What are your yam or sweet potato recipes for the holidays? Here is what I made. It was inspired by someone on Gourmet Babylon, a FB group a friend invited me to about a month ago. They have given me so many great ideas that I have neglected to blog. So I'm making up for it today with 2 entries. We will definitely be making this again.



Rinse 3 softball sized yams, poke with fork, and cook the yams in a microwave for 10 minutes. If you prefer you can bake them in the oven till mostly done. Then peel, slice, and layer in a baking dish with cranberry relish and walnuts. 
www.facebook.com/groups/gourmetbabylon

Orange Cranberry Relish

Orange Cranberry Relish:
1 cup of fresh cranberries rinsed, strained, and placed in food processor with 1 sectioned orange, process briefly till pieces are the size you enjoy in your relish. Save the juice and peels. Place into an airtight container but do not cover yet, add 1/4 cup of coconut palm sugar or 1/8 cup of brown sugar, any extra juice from the orange you sectioned, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. You can double this recipe easily. Extras save well in the fridge and can be frozen. Chill for 2 hours before serving

Walnuts:
Chop and soak the walnuts for 2 hours before then strain, rinse and set aside to dry. I soaked the walnuts while our orange cranberry relish was chilling in the fridge. this lets the chemicals in the walnut that make it bitter release, hence the need to rinse them, and it makes them softer and need less cooking time as well, in fact you can just eat them raw at that point and your body could process the proteins.

First Layer of Yam Dish

Layer yams, rellish, walnuts, and then Sprinkle a small amount of red pepper flakes on each layer. Squeeze a full orange worth of juice over the entire thing. Place baking dish in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes. We then turned the oven off and left them sitting in there with the stuffing until we were ready to serve. SO GOOD! You could use 1/8th of a cup of brown sugar for the same level of sweetness if you do not have coconut palm sugar, but I decided to use up the last of mine for this. It is said to be low on the glycemic index, and I've found that cooking low glycemic foods keeps my blood sugar more regulated. Before eating dinner my BG was 104, and after eating my thanksgiving meal this year my blood glucose was only 126 a full two hours later! Woohoo! (2 hours later is when they tell me to check, supposedly it's the highest your blood sugar will get after eating)

If you use either of these recipes, please let me know how you liked them, and if you have your own favorite you'd like to share, please do! You can also join in the recipe sharing in the Healthy Recipe Sharing Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthyRecipeSharing/

You Can't Plan for Everything - change of plans

Today was supposed to be the day I spoke with my Dr about Celiac disease and hopefully got tested, but you can not plan for everything. Unfortunately at 1am I was woken up by a scorpion walking on my neck. Not being awake and not realizing what was going on, I moved to brush whatever was crawling around on me OFF of my neck and out of my bed. I don't like bugs. Of course as my hand touched the scorpion he reacted by defending himself and STUNG me in the neck. I guess I'm really an Arizonan now! I am sad to say my doctor has canceled my appointments until the scorpion's toxin is out of my system. I wish I hadn't mentioned it when confirming this afternoon's appointments at lab and office, but for all I knew it might shift my lab results and we wouldn't want that. At least now I don't have to spend the day fasting and baking at the same time! I always feel better about food I prepared if I get to taste it before serving it to others.

Needless to say, I will primarily be using the day to rest. We have seen a few scorpions since moving to Phoenix, but we know that if you keep your house closed up properly, they usually aren't inside the house. Unfortunately, this one found a way into my bedroom. For a moment as it's toxins spread through me during those first 6 hours, I missed the familiar natural disasters of California. Thankfully I turn out not to be allergic to them, and Banner Poison Control informed me that I will be fine, because it doesn't get any worse after the first 6 hours. It will take a few days to get out of my system, and until then I should try to rest and remain still as movement tends to make it hurt more. I can confirm this is true. Still, I am determined to make some gluten-free bread today.

I was really disappointed about not being able to get my lab tests today as I was hoping to start my gluten free life after the test. At first much frustrated venting ensued, but now I've got a plan. Instead of being frustrated that I still have to hold off on complete dietary changes, I am going to use the time to help Patch, Carlie and myself become used to shopping for gluten-free ingredients and start intentionally preparing some glulten-free meals that are delicious. It is my hope that this will  get us used to the idea of eating in this new way. Patch has never liked change, and this is a big one. So now instead of instantly shifting over, we'll mix them in here and there between our normally glutenous diet. This continued occasional gluten will insure that I won't risk a false negative on the upcoming tests, but we will start on the path towards new habits. Already Patch has begun making note when she finds something which says gluten-free, so we are heading in the right direction!

The first gluten-free premixed product I'll try will be the pancake and baking mix which Patch brought home from AJ's which apparently has a large gluten-free section. For those of you in Phoenix or Chandler areas, check it out: http://www.ajsfinefoods.com/ I'm excited to try this product and will first use it to make the gluten-free Irish Soda Bread which Gluten Free Girl posted on her blog today. Perhaps we can dip it in the gluten-free vegan corn chowder I plan to make tomorrow for lunch with a vegetarian friend.

Happy St Patty's day everyone, wish me luck on making my first gluten-free bread!