Berry, coconut and almond smoothie

Dear Readers,
As you have read from my previous posts, we are always looking for recipes that are gluten or lactose free due to family intolerances. Today we tried a smoothie that is said to boost metabolism and after preparing it, we found it was delicious as a simple snack. If you want to have it in the morning before breakfast to boost your metabolism is great, if you don’t have time in the morning, we found it makes a great afternoon snack because it fills you up.

Grace Kagni’s delicious berry smoothie

Here are the ingredients

1 cup homemade lactose free yogurt (see recipe on https://theitalianwriter.blogspot.it/2018/02/is-it-really-lactose-or-gluten-free.html or use alternative such as greek yogurt)
1 large banana
1 cup bio almond milk
1 cup frozen berries
2 tablespoons of chopped almonds
2 tablespoons of coconut flour (flakes used for cakes)

Place all in blender and blend for five to ten minutes until ingredients are smooth.

Enjoy!

Note: It makes a great topping for ice cream, on toast with cream cheese, or even on plain yogurt :)

Frappe and castagnole di carnevale (gluten free)

Reposting:
Recipe for Frappe (gluten free)

220 gr rice flour
2 eggs
80 gr sugar
1 cup of limoncello (or lemon liquor)
1 lemon
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 lt. of sunflower oil
Icing sugar
Dark chocolate (optional)

Put the flour, baking powder, eggs, sugar, lemon liquor and pinch of salt in a bowl. Mix well until dough is smooth and hard. When dough is ready, put aside for fifteen minutes.
Flatten dough to 3mm and then cut small rectangular shapes. Slit each rectangle in middle. Heat oil and place three to four pieces to fry at a time. Turn over when edges are golden then pull out and place on paper towel. When cool, sprinkle icing sugar over.
Variation: heat up dark chocolate and dip or place light layers over before placing icing sugar.

Recipe for Castagnole (gluten free)

275 gr rice flour
1 egg
1 cup lactose free milk
100 gr sugar
16 gr baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 to 5 drops of vanilla extract
Half glass of limoncello (or other lemon liquor)
Icing sugar
1 lt. of sunflower  oil

Beat in a bowl the sugar, the egg and the vanilla. Then add slowly half of  the rice flour and continue to beat the dough.  Add mild  and pinch of salt  until dough is  loose. Add the limoncello  and baking powder and  the rest of the flour. Add  more flour if needed.
Heat oil  and take a tea spoon full  of  the  dough at a time  to fry. You can  make small balls or drop it into the hot oil with the teaspoon. The dumplings will float to the top when cooked but when you see they are golden, take them out. Place on  paper towel and when cool, sprinkle with icing sugar.

Is it really lactose or gluten free?

Reposting:
Dear readers,

Since we have several food intolerances, we have over the years tried many recipes that were lactose and gluten free. There is a multitude of recipes out there to chose from but most have ingredients what one may not be able to eat such as corn or rice. Did you know corn starch is in many yogurts we buy at the store? We didn’t know this until one of my daughters started being intolerant to corn so we have formulated our own recipes for home made products that are really good.

I have been making my own plain yogurt this past week and found it to be really easy and tasty so I would like to share with you how to make it. I will be posting from time to time new recipes we’ve perfected and want to share with you.

Enjoy
Grace

Grace Kagni’s plain yogurt recipe

• A tall pasta pot with integrated colander and lid (if you don’t have it just use a simple pot with lid)
• Two to three tall mason jars with lid that have been sterilised with hot water (use as many that will fit in pot)
• Milk to fill each mason jar nearly to the top (leave one inch to boarder)
• A small container of natural yogurt for every mason jar
• A large thermal bag and two tall mason jars to keep yogurt warm over night

Fill the mason jars with cold milk and place them in the pot. Rest lids on top but do not seal them. Fill pot with water until level is same height as milk in mason jars. Put lid on pot and turn on flame or burner on high. When water starts to boil, turn down temperature so water continues to boil slowly and set timer to fifteen minutes.

After fifteen minutes, fill sink with cold water and place mason jars in cold water so that cold water reaches top of milk in jars. Keep hot water in pot until later. Wait seven to eight minutes before placing a container of plain yogurt inside of each mason jar. Stir and close tight with lid. Then place yogurt jars inside the thermal bag.

Fill two empty mason jars with the boiled water and close tight with lids. Place these inside the thermal bag next to the yogurt jars and close the bag. Leave overnight or eight hours and then place yogurt jars inside fridge for twelve hours. Then yogurt will be ready to eat!

You can add anything you like to the plain yogurt but it will be sweet as it was made with milk. We add things like maple syrup, fruit, cereal, nuts, berries or honey.

We saw a recipe for Italian Tiramisu made with yogurt so next weekend we’ll be trying it out and I’ll share it on my page to explain how to make it.