Lisa – Page 7 – Don't Fleece the Bees

Banana Carob AIP Brownies

April 25, 2021September 26, 2022 Lisa

In an earlier post, I shared a recipe for an AIP-compliant treat I call “Zookies”—Zucchini Brownies. In this one, I’ll introduce a recipe that I like even better! Why do I prefer the Banana Carob Brownies? Well, the ingredient list is a bit shorter, the texture is dense but crumbly (Zookies are a little more custard-like), and you can prepare the batter in a stand mixer (so clean up is a breeze).

Now, I do not claim to be a nutritionist or an AIP expert—I’m just a person who has learned a thing or two about the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) as a matter of necessity. There are many excellent books, websites, and podcasts available for those who want or need to learn more.

It can be tough to follow the AIP, especially during the elimination phase with so many foods removed from your cooking repertoire (no eggs, no grains, no dairy, no sugar, no beans or legumes, no nightshades, no caffeine, no alcohol). Plus if you’re following the AIP, you’re probably already struggling with some difficult and frustrating health issues. That’s a lot.

But following the AIP isn’t just about cutting out certain foods; it’s equally focused on incorporating nutrient dense foods into your diet. In the spirit of that, I feel like I should be extolling the virtues of beef liver or cruciferous veggies. . . . But honestly, sometimes you just want to have a little treat. This one is easy to make, is AIP-compliant, and is so dang good! I’d come across other recipes that are similar, but they always seemed to include an ingredient or two I didn’t have on hand, like gelatin or tigernut flour. After a bit of experimentation, I refined the recipe below, which delivers delicious results every time.

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup oil (olive, avocado)
2/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup carob powder*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

*Carob powder is a good ingredient to explore while on the AIP. Carob is naturally sweet, is a good source of fiber and antioxidants, and is a terrific substitute for cocoa or cacao (which are off the table). Carob powder comes from the pods of the carob tree, which contain a pulp that can be dried, roasted, and ground. It makes these brownies deliciously chocolatey!

Here’s what you do:

1) Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly oil a 9×9″ baking dish.

2) Put all of the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix thoroughly.*

3) Spread batter into baking dish (it will be thick) and bake for 25-30 minutes.

4) After the brownies have cooled, frost them if desired (recipe below) and then store them in the refrigerator.

*If my bananas are not at the ideal ripeness (ideal = speckled with brown spots), it’s helpful to mash them up a bit first and then add all of the other ingredients to the bowl. Mashing the bananas and then mixing in the other ingredients by hand would also work if you do not have a stand mixer. That should be a decent arm workout, too.

Frosting

The frosting is really the thing that makes these brownies feel decadent. When you store them in the refrigerator, the frosting hardens into a fondant-like texture. Sinking your fork into them isn’t exactly like cracking into a creme brûlée, but it’s somewhere along that spectrum.

1 T coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup carob powder
3 to 5 T water

Melt the coconut oil, add the carob powder to the bowl, and then add water a few tablespoons at a time, mixing thoroughly and adding more water until the consistency is thick but spreadable. Smooth it over your cooled brownies and pop them in the fridge to be enjoyed a few hours later.

I hope you love them as much as I do!

Create

Foaming Hand Soap

March 29, 2021September 26, 2022 Lisa

There is a lot to love about foaming hand soap.

That delightful little pillow of foam on your palm lathers quickly and rinses easily. It uses water and soap more efficiently, so it’s good for the planet and your wallet.

But the best thing about it? It’s ridiculously easy to make your own.

As a general rule I try to minimize my exposure to harmful chemicals in my personal use products. Also as a general rule, products that fit my criteria seem to cost more—which is something I enjoy working around by making them myself. And you can make a high-quality, earth-friendly foaming hand soap for a fraction of what you’d pay for one at the store. Heck, your soap will cost less than the cheapest soap you can find at the store.

A bit of math:

A 10-oz. bottle of foaming hand soap with (relatively) simple ingredients costs $3 to $5. Even if I refill that bottle when it’s empty, I’ll still spend $6 or $7 on a refill pouch, which works out to a little more than $2 per 10-oz. bottle.

The thing is, when you look at the list of ingredients, the first one is . . . water. Topped off with some cleansing agents.

Well, shoot. Can YOU fill a bottle with water? Can YOU top it off with a cleansing agent? Then you can make your own foaming hand soap. (Although you’ll actually add these ingredients in the reverse order. We’ll get to that in a minute.)

The only somewhat magical ingredient in this whole equation is the bottle itself. The bottle has two chambers—the lower one holds the soap mixture, and the upper one is filled with air. When you press the pump, it forces air into the soap mixture, and voila, you’ve got Foamy Soap.

You can purchase a pretty glass dispenser of course, or just buy a cheap bottle of foaming soap at the store, dump that crap out, and fill it with your own mixture.

Now, I’ve seen some tutorials that advocate simply taking regular liquid hand soap and watering that down in your foaming soap dispenser (using a ratio of about 1 part soap to 4 parts water). That will produce a foamy soap, but I’ve also read that by interfering with the proportions of ingredients in the original soap, you might reduce the soap’s effectiveness.

You can avoid that concern by using liquid castile soap, which is highly concentrated and therefore intended to be diluted. I am a fan of Dr. Bronner’s. The soap is biodegradable, free from synthetic preservatives, and has a million and one household uses. It’s available unscented, but I also enjoy the lavender, rose, and peppermint varieties. (Some people craft a scent themselves by using essential oils.) A 32-oz. bottle of Dr. Bronner’s costs about $13, but because it’s highly concentrated, it lasts a long time. I easily get 30+ refills of foaming hand soap out of one 32-oz. bottle of liquid castile soap.

Crunch those numbers and you see that you can create your own high-quality foaming hand soap for less than $0.50 per bottle.

So how do you do it?

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Fill a clean foaming soap dispenser about 3/4 full with warm water.
Add about 2 tablespoons/1 oz. (just eyeball it) of castile soap. (If you add the soap first, it will start to suds up when you try to add water, so always add it second.)
Screw the cap on the dispenser and gently agitate it to blend the mixture.
Wash your hands!

That’s it. Seriously. (I told you it was easy.)

Read

It’s a Long Story: Magic, Mystery, and a Pint of Doom Bar

February 15, 2021November 8, 2023 Lisa

It’s been more than 20 years now since Harry Potter became a household name. His author, J.K. Rowling (which, let’s just settle this once and for all, rhymes with “bowling”), not far behind. If you’ve never read the series, it’s not too late—the books attract readers of all ages; multi-generational fanclubs abound. I had a fun chat with one of my nephews recently, who is reading the series for the first time. We compared notes on our favorite book (Goblet of Fire hands down) and lamented the fact that we both have sisters who have been sorted into Slytherin:

“Or perhaps in Slytherin
You’ll make your real friends
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.”
—from the Sorting Hat’s song, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

(Yeah. But Slytherins have good qualities too, right?. . . . They’re, um, resourceful? You might like to take the test yourself and find out which House you belong to. It’s uncannily accurate.)

I had never been big into the fantasy genre before Harry Potter, but it was definitely a gateway into other enjoyable series such as Inkheart and Eragon.

It was a bittersweet day when I turned the last page on the last book in the Harry Potter saga.

Years passed.

And then I met Cormoran Strike, the burly, foul-mouthed, beer-swilling detective created by Robert Galbraith. Pseudonym of none other than . . . J.K. Rowling.

I had never been big into detective novels before Cormoran Strike . . . (are you sensing a theme here?).

It’s hard not to like Cormoran Strike. Although he wouldn’t really give a crap whether you liked him or not. When we first meet Strike, his life is on a definite downward spiral. He’s a veteran of the Special Investigation Branch of the British military, missing half of his right leg after an explosion in Afghanistan; he just broke off (again, and probably for good) from his tempestuous lover; and he’s drowning in bills that his trickle of detective clients does little to offset. But don’t go feeling sorry for him; he certainly doesn’t feel sorry for himself. (And pity infuriates him anyway.) Strike is stubborn as hell, and just as smart. He can be gruff and unapologetic, but then surprise you with his compassion. He is protective and loyal to those who have earned his trust, a short list that comes to include Robin Ellacott, the most unlikely partner Strike ever would have imagined.

Robin shows up for work at Strike’s office, sent by a temp agency to fill a receptionist spot that Strike had forgotten to cancel—and can little afford to pay. Although the beautiful, clean-cut Robin is Strike’s foil in nearly every way, she turns out to be his equal when it comes to resourcefulness, stubbornness, and integrity. Working as a receptionist is far from Robin’s dream job, but being involved in detective work . . . well, that is a lifelong dream of hers. Before long, she has somehow made herself indispensable to the agency. When Strike is hired to investigate the high profile death (murder?) of a glamorous young starlet, things get very interesting.

I don’t want to say too much about the plots. It will be much more fun for the stories to unfold as you read them. Personally, I like to go into a new book pretty much cold so that I can be surprised and delighted by the twists and turns. And there are plenty of those in the Strike novels.

Speaking of surprise and delight. . . . Strike regularly enjoys a nice pint (or two, or four), and one that he orders up throughout the first novel is a brew called Doom Bar. I had never heard of it and didn’t imagine it was a real thing. But it is a real thing, at least in the UK, because when my husband and I visited Scotland a few years back, Doom Bar was on draft at the first pub we visited! Well I had to raise a pint to Strike, didn’t I? I expected it to be a dark and heavy stout, like the man himself, but it was a lovely amber ale. Delicious.

*Here’s the pub! I’m waiting excitedly as my husband orders the Doom Bar.*
*And then I was so distracted I neglected to take a photo. Amateur hour.*

There are seven novels in the series so far: The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White, Troubled Blood, The Ink Black Heart, and The Running Grave. Several of these have been adapted for television (the show is called “C.B. Strike”) and are available on various premium platforms.

There is a lot to love about J.K. Rowling’s work. She is a master at bringing a person to life using the written word. I’m consistently awed at her imagination and skill to so perfectly capture a character’s thoughts, motivations, mannerisms, and speech.

But maybe the best thing about Rowling’s books is that they are so long! Her novels are the type that you want to race through because they’re so engaging, but that you try to read slowly because you want to make them last. I’m always grateful that I have hundreds of pages over which to fight this battle. (The Running Grave is almost 1,000 pages!)

So if you’re on the hunt for some heavy light reading, raise your glass of Doom Bar (or butterbeer, Potter fans!) to J.K. Rowling. Between Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike, she certainly has you covered.