Fresh Apricot Breakfast Pudding - Gluten and Sugar Free!

 It's apricot season! 

This breakfast dish is full of juicy and tangy bits of fresh apricot, surrounded by a chewy-soft pudding. The perfect use for not-quite-ripe or overripe apricots.

And it's one of the simplest of all of Joseph's breakfast pudding recipes!

 Fresh Apricot Breakfast Pudding

 Serves 2 or more

1 T. ghee to melt in baking dish

4 fresh apricots, approx. 8 oz. when pitted (leave skin on)

Zest of one fresh lemon

1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon Homemade Vanilla

5 eggs + 1 yolk

3 of the tiny scoops found inside a bottle of Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Organic Stevia Extract, or 3/64ths of a teaspoon (read how to use and measure stevia here)

1/2 cup Minute Tapioca, uncooked

Follow the basic directions for creating a steam bath and baking a steamed pudding here. 

After melting the ghee in your glass baking dish in the steam bath, arrange sliced, thick wedges of two apricots around the bottom of the dish. Grind the other two apricots in the blender with the remaining ingredients, adding tapioca at the end while the blender is running. Then quickly pour into the baking dish or the tapioca will settle on the bottom. 

Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Serves 2 for a complete breakfast, or more for dessert.

Dark Chocolate Power Pudding - Gluten and Sugar Free*

Topped with Joseph's no-sugar whipped cream
and frozen cherries and raspberries.

Joseph makes many variations on his chocolate breakfast puddings, but this one was a big hit with our nephew, Matthew. So here it is, just in time for his Christmas birthday! Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Remember that if you eat a little more than half of it, you’ve eaten a pretty good-sized breakfast, containing all your protein (3 eggs), carbohydrate (tapioca), and fruit (banana & raspberry), with a perfect portion left over for a breakfast companion--perhaps a lighter eater of the feminine gender and size? (Double the recipe if you invite one of your brothers to share and use two baking dishes.) 

Eat celery sticks with nut butter on the side for some fresh veggies and you’re good to go 'til lunch time. It’s gluten free, and we usually skip the honey to reduce the sugar hit. Either way, you won’t miss the white refined sugar at all!

  

Dark Chocolate Power Pudding

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter) or cocoa butter

4 eggs + 2 yolks

12 oz. ripe organic banana (approx. 2–3)

1/3 cup milk

3 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened (Ghiradelli brand preferred)

3 of the tiny scoops found inside a bottle of Trader Joe’s 100% Pure Organic Stevia Extract, approx. 1/64th plus 1/128th teaspoon*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Homemade is best but extract will work) or 1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla beans

Optional: 1 Tablespoon honey or more to taste (Note: Omit if kicking a sugar habit)

1/2 cup Minute Tapioca, uncooked

Prepare a steam bath:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Choose a glass baking dish or pie plate that will fit inside a larger pan holding water, so that the water comes up about an inch along the sides. A large roasting pan works well. It's easiest to put the pans together, measure in the water, then remove your baking dish and place the water-holding pan in the oven to warm. (Choose a baking dish that will make your pudding about as deep as a pie, or you'll have to increase your baking time.)

Melt the ghee in the pie plate by placing it in the warming steam bath for a moment. Then carefully remove the baking dish from the steam bath and set it aside. (Leave the steam bath in the oven.)

Make pudding: 

Using a blender, add the banana, eggs, milk, and blend on low speed. While running, add the cocoa, stevia, and vanilla. If you wish and your eggs are very fresh, taste for sweetness and add optional honey (1 tablespoon to start). It should taste sweeter than you want the end product to taste. Otherwise, trust the recipe and add 1 T. honey. While blender is still running, add tapioca and pour immediately into baking dish, before the tapioca settles. Bake in steam bath for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Test by inserting knife in center; done when it comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold, with optional raspberry sauce. You can even cut it into little squares and serve as a light dessert to a crowd, serve fresh raspberries on the side, or top with stevia and vanilla sweetened dollops of whipped cream. 

*Back label says, “Stevia Rebaudiana, 45 mg. per scoop” – with NO ADDITIONAL SUGAR-DERIVED ADDITIVES, as you would find in nearly every other brand of stevia product. For more about using plant-derived stevia, read this.

Optional Raspberry Sauce

2 c. frozen raspberries

1 teaspoon Framboise raspberry liqueur

1/4 c. water

1 scoop stevia (as above, one tiny white scoop = 1/64^th teaspoon)

Honey to taste

Place in small saucepan and simmer until thickened. Use cool, warm, or hot as topping. 
*(NOTE: Honey and liqueurs may have a sugar-like impact on your system, so vary this recipe according to your needs. If you're currently trying to kick a sugar habit, use stevia-sweetened whipping cream as a topping instead; it whips up just like cream with sugar would.)

You can see the transparent tapioca balls inside.

 

This creamy variation uses 16 oz. cooked taro root
in place of instant tapioca.

 

Magical Macadamia Nut Cookies

The beautiful thing about these cookies is the fact that they contain no sugar, use only a small amount of natural sweeteners, and have no gluten! Joseph asked me what I wanted for breakfast on a sleepy Easter morning and I mumbled, “Cookies with nuts.” So he invented these to suit all my stringent requirements! YUM!

Magical Macadamia Nut Cookies

Makes 40 cookies

1 cup ghee (clarified butter)

2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Homemade Vanilla or 3/4 teaspoon ground vanilla beans
9 oz. ripe bananas (2 large)
2 1/2 tablespoons honey
4 teensy scoops of Trader Joe's 100% pure stevia rebaudiana extract (that's white powdered stevia), or 1/16 teaspoon
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup tapioca flour
1 cup white rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts, chopped
Parchment baking paper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut parchment to fit two large cookie sheets. Set aside.

Mash ghee with bananas, eggs, vanilla, honey, maple syrup, and stevia. Use a hand-held mixer to complete the job, and don’t worry if you still have some visible bits and lumps of banana. Stir in the dry ingredients, mixing smoothly. Add nuts and blend completely.

Drop by walnut-sized spoonfuls onto the parchment paper and bake for 10-15 minutes for the first batch; less for the second. (Don’t know why, but the second batch always cooks faster.) You can also chill the dough, roll it out, and cut shapes with a cookie-cutter, or roll it into a log, wrap, chill, and slice. If you used the chilled method, set your timer and check them after 10 minutes.

Makes 40 cookies.

Naturally Sweet "Pumpkin" Pie Breakfast Pudding



Lucky I caught this picture at all, it was disappearing so fast!

I LOVE pumpkin pie for breakfast! But since we’re not eating sugar any more, Joseph invented this amazing stand-in and I can’t really tell the difference. He uses leftover sweet potatoes, which require a fraction of the natural sweeteners pumpkin would need.

For us, when combined with stevia, only a tablespoon of real maple syrup does the trick. You might need two if your tastebuds are accustomed to the jaw-socking sweetness of refined sugar. If you’ve used fresh eggs from a source you trust, you can taste the pudding mix before baking; it should taste slightly sweeter than you want the final dish to be. (Don't do this if you're using commercial eggs.)

This will supply a complete, balanced breakfast with protein, carbs, and fat if you split it between two people.

Naturally Sweet “Pumpkin" Pie Breakfast Pudding
Serves 2 or more

1 tablespoon goat butter

10 oz. cooked organic sweet potatoes (aka garnet yams)

5 fresh eggs + 1 yolk from free-range chickens

2 tablespoons cream

1 tablespoon real maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon green stevia

Prepare a steam bath:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Choose a glass baking dish or pie plate that will fit inside a larger pan holding water, so that the water comes up about an inch along the sides. It's easiest to put the pans together, measure in the water, then remove your baking dish and place the water-holding pan in the oven to warm.

Melt the goat butter in the pie plate by placing it in the steam bath for a moment. Then carefully remove it from the oven before the butter burns. Set aside.

Place peeled sweet potatoes, eggs, cream, and maple syrup in blender. Turn on low. While it's running, slowly add the spices and stevia. (Taste if you've used safe eggs and adjust sweetening.)

Pour into the pie plate and sprinkle the top with fresh-grated nutmeg. Bake in steam bath at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut and serve like pie. Serves 2 for breakfast, or serve as a very mild but filling dessert.

If your family traditions differ slightly (adding allspice, etc.) feel free to adjust the spices accordingly, but keep the same proportions as your pie recipe. Joseph derived this version from my Gramma Jo’s original recipe. J You can also serve this in a crust; just bake it like you would any pumpkin pie!

Stevia Secrets

Our fledgling stevia plant

Joseph's Cooking Notes:

I love stevia! It’s great stuff, but it doesn’t taste very good because it’s 300 times sweeter than sugar. It’s so sweet that if you ate the extract straight, your mouth would implode and you might end up with permanently sunken cheeks. Don’t try it. Let this serve as your warning.

What is Cosmic Cooking?

“I love traditional foods because I think many of them carry the wisdom of the ancestors. It’s the wisdom of the body before corporations got involved with their hidden agendas, and murked up the body’s innate nutritional instincts.”– Joseph

“I’m the fortunate wife who gets to eat all of these marvelous concoctions Joseph creates. I also wash a lot of dishes.” – Lianne

What is Cosmic Cooking?

Cosmic Cooking is healthy, inspired, and often spontaneous. We think the lost art of cooking your own food is an important "Survival Skill for the 21st Century."

Cosmic Cooking is best enjoyed sitting down at a table with loved ones. But if you must, it will still be nurturing and satisfying stuffed in a backpack, eaten alone, consumed in the car, or spoon-fed in front of the TV. Although we think you’re going to like it so much, you’ll prefer the table, where you can taste every delicious morsel!

The not-so-secret ingredient of Cosmic Cooking is LOVE, every step of the way, from the field to the fork.

How This Blog Can Help You

If you don't know how to cook, let us inspire and instruct you.

If you do, enjoy some crazy new combinations or ideas or ingredients or tools you've never tried before.

And by all means, post your experiences in the Comments section! We'd love to hear from you.

What We Eat

We love to eat a gourmet, widely varied diet. You'll find specific posts about ingredients here, but you're probably wondering what kind of recipes you'll find. We've tried so many diets, it's really rather embarrassing. All of them had good results at first, but made us sick over time.


Since April of 2013, we've been on the Perfect Health Diet, which so far has lived up to its name. We do closely monitor what we put in our bodies, so that our current diet tends to look like this most of the time:

• 5 oz. white rice (to avoid the toxins in brown rice), potatoes, plantains, orange, white or purple sweet potatoes, taro root (giant or little), tapioca, or other roots per meal, 3 meals per day
• Healthy fats, including butter, ghee, cocoa butter, suet, and lard from pastured pigs, olive oil, and hazelnut oil; we try to avoid high omega 6 oils such as canola, corn, soy, safflower, etc.
• No sugar or its artificial derivatives
• Natural sweeteners (fruit, stevia, occasional honey, maple syrup, or carob syrup)
• Fresh produce — Currently we're not eating as much organic because freshness energy-tests better than old, and the ethnic markets (Korean, Asian, Mexican, Persian, Arabic, etc.) in our neighborhood have higher turnover than the farmer's markets
• Seasonal foods
• Traditional dishes modified for today
• We avoid all grains, especially wheat
• Fermented foods for digestive enhancement
• Limited lactose (for Lianne), with more goat milk and cheeses
• Animal foods, mostly ruminants and low fat fish, with poultry, fatty fish, shellfish, and organ meats once per week. We eat 3–4 oz. (cooked) each, 2 meals per day
• 16/8 fasting — We eat all our meals within an 8-hour window, fasting in between (Breakfast 10:30 a.m., Lunch 2:30 p.m., Dinner 6:30 p.m.)

A typical day for us would be:

Breakfasts

Split a steamed pudding made from 10 oz. plantains, sweet potatoes, or tapioca, 8 oz. fresh fruit baked in with 6 eggs, 1 oz. of homemade sausage with liver or heart on the side for each of us, and raw carrots, celery, or jicama.

Steamed eggs, liver or heart sausage, and a mash of white rice or sweet potatoes with bananas or other fruits, and raw carrots, celery, or jicama.

Frittata or omelette with seasonal veggies (asparagus, chard, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, or whatever's in season), with goat cheese and a sweet mash like we have with the steamed eggs.

 Lunch

Salad with cold potatoes or rice or yucca, chopped meats (4 oz. for Joseph, 3 oz. for Lianne), and a variety of seasonal veggies with a nice, salty homemade dressing. We don't eat the bagged greens anymore. Perhaps they're too old by the time we can get them? Or maybe lettuce just holds up better in a head. 3–4 oz. seasonal fruit for dessert.

Dinner

Bone broth or stock soup. We put the 5 oz. rice, potatoes, or maybe taro roots in a bowl, then on the stovetop boil two cups of bone broth or stock, into which go seasonal veggies and a variety of seasonings. Sometimes we'll boil the meat in the stock, sometimes we put leftovers in a bowl and heat it up by pouring boiling stock on top. Lianne likes to include a raw vegetable on the side (cucumbers, celery, carrots, red bell peppers, or ?)
 
Joseph considers it a special challenge to redesign familiar favorites to suit these parameters. He'll be posting specifics about some of his unusual ingredients, with recipes for sampling. 

We're not vegetarians, but we've been hugely influenced by the recipes and cooking style in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone; by the Weston A. Price Foundation and Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions; the Perfect Health Diet, and our large collection of traditional cookbooks, which you'll surely hear more about!

Who We Are

Joseph Downey is a self-taught gourmet who loves to create spontaneous, unexpected delights from whole, lovingly grown and carefully nurtured ingredients. He’s also an author, poet, composer, and dancer. But his favorite way to relax from his full-time day job is in the kitchen, converting another recipe into something truly magnificent—or just plain weird but yummy.

Lianne Downey has become an adventurous eater, purely for survival in Joseph’s kitchen! But she has no regrets and does in fact eat amazing meals three times a day, especially on weekends. She’s also an author, dancer, musician, and publisher. She writes another blog, "Soul Pursuits," about our shared adventures in interdimensional consciousness.

Together, we own Cosmic Visionary Music & Books – and this blog.