SCD Lazy Daisy Cake

In my last recipe post I mentioned it was too hot to use the oven. Then I see a recipe for Lazy Daisy Cake in a Taste of Home publication and I can't fire the oven up fast enough to attempt a SCD version. This has a luscious buttery gooiness to it, a great trait to find in a dessert!

SCD Lazy Daisy Cake (SCD)

Cake:
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Honey
1 teas. Vanilla Extract
2 cups Almond Flour
1 teas. Baking Soda
1/4 teas. Sea Salt
1/2 cup Yogurt or Yogurt Cream (yogurt made from half and half), heated just to room temp
2 TBSP Butter, melted

Topping:
1/3 cup plus 1 TBSP Honey
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8" x 8" baking dish. (I use a pyrex dish)

For Cake: In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, honey, and vanilla until combined well and just a bit frothy, about one minute. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Then add to the egg mixture and beat just until combined. Beat in yogurt and melted butter. Pout into buttered baking dish and bake about 30-35 minutes, until cake tests done. Let cake cool for about 20 minutes.

For Topping: In a small saucepan melt butter and stir in honey until combined. Then stir in coconut. Spread over cake. Place under the broiler for about 3 to 4 minutes until browned and bubbly. Watch it closely, once it browns it doesn't take long to burn. Cool and enjoy! It seems like the next day it was even better.

This post is linked to Real Food Weekly, Fight Back Fridays, Sugar-Free Sunday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, and Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Dr. Ayers on Jimmy Moore's Low Carb Show

Jimmy Moore did an interview with one of my favorite non-foodie bloggers, Dr. Art Ayers' of Cooling Inflammation. His Anti-Inflammatory Diet recommendations are very similar to the SCD. When we first started the SCD diet I thought of it as temporary, until we were healed. After more research I now think it has it's advantages even in the absence of GI issues. Dr. Ayers blog has been full of information on the role of dietary inflammation on gut flora. In his interview with Jimmy Moore here, he discusses the role of starches and antibiotics on gut flora in allergies, autoimmunity, and constipation, and much more. The interview is 39 minutes into the podcast.

Chopped Brussels Sprouts (SCD, GFCF)

I love roasted Brussels sprouts, but despise the boiled ones. I didn't feel like firing up the oven to roast them, plus I was in a hurry, so I chopped and pan fried them. Very easy, quick and good. In fact so easy this really isn't a recipe at all, but I'll shamelessly post it anyways:

Chopped Brussels Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts
Butter, Oil or Fat for frying
Sea Salt

Cut the brown part of the stem part off the sprouts. Chop sprouts into quarters. In a frying pan over medium high heat, melt butter if you are using butter (for GFCF use another type of fat or oil). Add sprouts and cook until some are lightly browned and heated to your preference. Salt to taste.

Gut Flora, Nutrition, and Immunity

He's a fascinating article on the importance of gut flora: Human nutrition, the gut microbiome and the immune system. I saw a link to this gem on Paul Whiteley's blog Feed Me Research. It's been said they you can't fully discuss nutrition without the role of the gut flora. This article discusses some of the nuts and bolts of this, and for the most part it is easy to follow for us laypersons. The article makes several points worth mentioning:

"During the past 30 or so years, the North American diet has also shifted in terms of the relative contributions of different foods to total energy intake. Since 1970, two dietary 'epochs' can be distinguished based on the contribution of grains to overall calories (the mean increase in daily carbohydrate intake for men and women during this period was 62.4 g and 67.7 g, respectively). The consumption of other food items has also changed: Spearman's rank correlations between food availability and time, followed by adjustments of P values to reflect false discovery rates, show that the representation of 177 out of 214 items tracked by the USDA has increased or decreased significantly in US diets since 1970. For example, Americans now eat less beef and more chicken, and corn-derived sweeteners have increased at the expense of cane and beet sugars. Furthermore, methods of food modification and preparation have changed."

I find this interesting because chronic autoimmune and digestive diseases are on the rise. As a SCD'er I can't help but wonder if the drastic uptake of grains and sugar are a factor. A fun look at this change can be seen by Tom Naughton here and here.

"The intestinal microbiota can synthesize several vitamins involved in myriad aspects of microbial and host metabolism, including cobalamin (vitamin B12), pyridoxal phosphate (the active form of vitamin B6), which is involved in several enzymatic interconversions in amino-acid metabolism, pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), niacin (vitamin B3), biotin, tetrahydrofolate and vitamin K. In addition to vitamin B12, gut microbes produce a range of related molecules (corrinoids) with altered 'lower ligands', including analogues such as methyladenine and p-cresol. More than 80% of non-absorbed dietary vitamin B12 is converted to these alternative corrinoids. There is preliminary evidence to suggest that syntrophic relationships among members of the human microbiota, and the fitness of some taxa, may be based on the ability to generate, use or further transform various corrinoids."

I found this one interesting because those of us with gi issues also tend to be lacking in these vitamins. Vitamin B6 has also been found to help in autism, again pointing to a possible gut issue. As well as anemia in both populations:

"Likewise, iron is an essential micronutrient for bacteria. Given the low solubility of Fe3+, microbes have evolved the capacity to produce several high-affinity iron-binding siderophores. Microbes take up soluble Fe3+–siderophore complexes by several active transporters. Early studies in gnotobiotic animals showed a link between the gut microbiota and the development of iron deficiency. Germ-free but not conventionally raised rats become anaemic when fed a low-iron diet. The germ-free rats also show increased loss of iron in their faeces compared with their conventionally raised counterparts54. The iron balance that exists between host and microbiota is disturbed in a mouse model of Crohn's disease in which tumour-necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) expression is dysregulated: oral (but not parenteral) iron supplementation in these animals causes a shift in the gut microbial community composition, as defined by 16S ribosomal-RNA-based surveys, and exacerbates their ileitis."

This article also discusses the role of gut flora in obesity and diabetes. I was curious about which type of fat they used in this study reference: "Mice fed a high-fat diet have increased serum levels of lipopolysaccharide".
It turns out the researchers used corn and lard for the 72 percent fat diet for the mice. (I suspect a lot of corn and corn oil in the modern diet may not be a good thing).

Deviled Eggs with Sweet Onions (SCD, Nut-Free)

We have an abundance of sweet onions in our CSA box. Thankfully I have a food dehydrator. I also slipped some diced onions into the deviled eggs with tasty results.

Deviled Eggs with Sweet Onions (SCD)

6 Large Eggs, hard boiled
2 TBSP Mayonnaise
2 TBSP Butter, melted
1/3 cup Sweet Onions, very finely diced
Salt and Pepper to taste
A sprinkle of paprika for garnish.

Slice eggs in half lengthwise and scoop yolk into a small bowl. Add mayonnaise and butter and mash well. If the mixture is too dry, mix in more mayo one teaspoon at a time to desired consistency. Add onions, salt and pepper. Drop yolk mixture into egg white shells. Sprinkle with paprika. Chill until serving.