Fruit Ice Blocks

Simple easy iceblocks made from fruit

Ingredients

This quantity will make approx. 4-5 zipzicles

2/3 cup coconut water
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup fruit (fresh or frozen)


flavour suggestions: strawberry, kiwifruit, raspberry, mango, blueberry, pear

Method

Put all ingredients in Thermomix
Blend 20 seconds speed 6

If using Zipzicles... use a turkey baster to help fill the bags easily, then seal



use turkey baster to draw up the liquid and easily place in the zipzicle bag

or pour into iceblock moulds

Place in the freezer to set overnight and then enjoy!

Zipzicles are available from Lime Tree Kids
http://www.limetreekids.com.au/category-zipzicles-zip-top-ice-block-pack-528.aspx

TIP for Failsafers : Use pear only and replace the coconut water with normal water

or the liquid from the tinned pears

Homeopathy

the amazing world of Aperture Homeopathy

Diet and Aperture Homeopathy has been part of our journey and for most, you know how I have worked through diet to heal. Homeopathy is new and strange for some and I am often asked how and why I use it; what is it like; what are the benefits; criticised because it isn't scientific and questioned about how do I know it works...


I wanted to put together some information for those progressing through their healing journey with themselves and their children. I am not a doctor, a medical professional or a homeopath... I am a mother who has investigated and studied and made decisions for my family. You need to decide for yourself the path for your family. This information is just my experiences.

I have been on this journey for 18 years... the last 7 years has been intense. We have moved through so many different twists and turns. I am excited by the current change to our path as we have seen the most positive gain so far in our journey.

DIET... is it enough?

Please read all about how we introduced healing foods very slowly.
http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2012/12/our-story-to-healing.html
http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2013/01/childrens-journey.html
http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2013/08/update-childrens-healing-journey-six.html

This took time and patience and was full of frustrations. I found we got to the point where we got stuck... I couldn't find a way forward. Tolerance was not increasing anymore, even though we were using Biomedicine to help us. The children were doing well. They had increased their foods from 5 to 12. And that is awesome... but I wanted more. I desperately wanted them to have a healthy diet, be able to eat all vegetables and fruits... be able to make them all these lovely GAPS and Paleo treats I was enjoying. I also had some issues with my health that were not resolving with biomedicine. I heard about the Dhanvantari College of Homeopathy from a Failsafe friend on the Facebook groups. I could see how well her children were going and I was curious.

Our journey with homeopathy

As a Christian, I initially needed to make sure this therapy would not go against my faith. After discussing this with the homeopath, and earnestly praying, I could see it would be fine. And so I took the plunge and started remedies for myself. I didn't understand the process of detox and found my emotions difficult to cope with. It took quite some time for me to realise that the way the toxins leave the body and the emotions that come to the surface, move through quickly and easily if you are calm and let go. It is not a pleasant time if you fight it.

The other thing that was so different from my previous path was trusting my homeopath to do her best for me. In Biomedicine, we are so busying researching and trying to find the answers... Homeopathy is very different. We have to let all of that go and let the homeopath find our healing path. It is strange and foreign and hard to understand... I have no idea what we take each month, I just follow her instructions.

Once I had dealt with my initial panicked reaction, I calmed and started to enjoy the process. I then decided to start the children. When I realised they were stuck and I was unable to increase their food tolerance just by introducing small amounts slowly, I had to make a change to their path. They coped much better than I did initially and embraced this new change.

Within a month we had stopped all our biomedicine treatments and supplements and relied solely on homeopathy. The results have been nothing short of amazing!

The Gains

The positive outcomes make all the detox so very worth it. For my son, who has Sensory Processing Disorder, his gains have shined. He was a very anxious boy, who barely spoke, had no fine motor skills, was unable to tolerate noise or crowds and had massive separation anxiety.

Increasing his zinc through biomedicine had a positive impact on his anxiety. He was able to separate and go to preschool. However he still clung to me when I left him (although no longer crying) and when I returned, was standing at the door waiting for me. Now he runs off, with a half forgotten 'bye mum' and I have to go looking for him and wait for him to finish playing with his friends when I collect him.

He now chats all the time and his language pronunciation is so improved. He can hold a pencil and participate in art and craft. He has fun with groups of children. He is not scared of noise... He even loves getting his hair cut now, chatting to the hairdresser (he used to scream and cry)

His food tolerance has improved dramatically as well.

For my youngest daughter, her gains have been mainly seen through her food tolerance. She was already a confident and social little thing. Her diet is now unbelievable. I would never imagined when we started homeopathy that in just four months we would have such success.

Previously the children's diet was just
chicken, lamb, rice, tapioca/arrowroot, potato, celery, choko, Nuttelex, sunflower oil (meats cooked quickly with no browning)

Now they have
slow cooked meat, chicken broth, gelatin, ghee, tallow, coconut oil and flour, cucumber, carrot, sweet potato, capsicum, broccoli, peas, pumpkin, avocado, eggs, macadamia nuts, honey, pomegranate juice, banana, strawberry, kiwi fruit, blueberry, passionfruit, rockmelon... the list is continually growing.

Isn't that just amazing!

The Detox

Detox is hard work... your body is getting rid of years of bad stuff. Sometimes it passes quickly, other times, not so much. The more you relax and accept it, the easier it is to cope. For those of us used to food reactions, I found it very similar on occasion. The best bit being, you always get a gain.

For me, detox has been headaches, bloating, skin rashes, varying emotions - sad, angry, anxious, calm

For the little ones, detox has been much easier than I anticipated. There has been fevers, vomiting, bowel issues, sore bottoms, rashes, nose bleeds, irritating and cranky behaviour, sleep disturbances. I found that once I was calm and didn't panic, the children moved through each detox really quickly. And although that list sounds bad, they still played and went to school and coped with daily life. You receive remedies to help with the detox and they really do help so much.

Detox is very individual, so we will all go through something a bit different.


To give you an example of how well our healing is going... there was a terrible virus going through school last week. We caught it and had a fever overnight and that was it. Totally fine the next day. Other kids were off school a full week. Early this year when a similar virus was going around, I had both children in hospital on drips for a week.


The exciting thing about detox is waiting for the gain. After each detox, something really cool happens. Last detox, my son started creating with his Lego. Before he would just play with components already made. He now pulls them apart and makes his own. And he started saying "L".

 

The Homeopath

My wonderful Homeopath is Michelle Amor. She has been a constant support to me and has helped us achieve healing I never thought possible. You can contact her via email, mobile, website or her Facebook page  http://journeytoawareness.net/about/

Good luck from my little people to yours xo

Not all of us can heal with diet alone. It is very important to remember, you are all doing your best with the information you have. It is a difficult, frustrating journey, full of many twists and turns. Don't lose heart just because one aspect didn't work for you. We are all so very different and our journeys are different... we learn something new from each stage and I hope that one day you will all be able to share your success.

Be patient and kind to yourself while you heal

New Book - Grain Free

Kersten's Kitchen Grain Free Recipe Book

I am very excited to be able to provide you with a simple collection of Grain Free recipes.

There are recipes for everyday staples, meals and baking

• You will be using coconut flour, nut meals and seeds to create delicious treats
• Healing broth will be the base for different easy to prepare meals
• Probiotic fermented foods and drinks will surprise you

Recipes are free from gluten and refined sugar. Some do use nuts and egg, although you will find many recipes without. Most are dairy free, some use ghee.

Instructions are written for the Thermomix but can be adapted to use a food processor. Many recipes are very simple, using a bowl and your stove.

Just a sample of the creations in 'Grain Free'

Please check out the table of contents to see what goodies you can prepare. The book is available in Printed format as well as an eBook for instant download.

Grab your copy today

Welcome to the world of healing... ENJOY!

Sausage Rolls

Gluten free Pastry for Sausage Rolls

This is a simple pastry which is easy to handle and very flexible. It is able to be used to make sausage rolls, meat pies, savoury pasties and sweet fruit pies as well.

The recipe can be found for traditional mixing or by hand in Kersten's Kitchen: Allergy Free, Not Flavour Free and for Thermomix in Thirty Second Baking.

Here are some step by step photos to help with preparing sausage rolls:

STEP ONE

Prepare the dough either by hand, in KitchenAid or Thermomix
(You can double the recipe if you want to make a big batch to freeze or for a party)

Dough Tips: Mashed potato should be just a potato, boiled then mashed. Do not use TMX mash potato as it is way too runny. Consistency should be thick. Add water slowly and mix. The guar gum takes time to activate and if you add to much liquid you will end up with a sticky mess. Once the dough comes together, stop adding liquid and use your hands to knead. Add a little extra flour to your bench as above and knead to get your dough into a ball shape. If you grind your own flours they will not be as fine as store bought. You will need to add a little less liquid or more flour to compensate for the coarser texture. I find if you use store bought white rice flour and tapioca/arrowroot starch and only grind the brown rice texture will be fine. Dough should be soft and pliable, and very easy to handle and roll out. It will feel similar to playdough...

STEP TWO

Roll out half the dough until about 5mm thick adding extra flour to your rolling pin and surface so the dough doesn't stick
Cut into a rectangle shape

STEP THREE

Roll sausage meat into a log and place on the long side of the rectangle of pastry

 

STEP FOUR

Using the baking paper to help you, lift the pastry and roll over the top of the meat, lift the paper away from the pastry and continue rolling until the meat is enclosed and the pastry starts to over lap. Then cut away excess pastry.

STEP FIVE

Cut into serving size and place on lined baking tray and brush with milk or egg to glaze

STEP SIX

Repeat with remaining pastry and meat

STEP SEVEN

Bake 180 degrees celcius for 40 - 50 minutes until golden

TIP: If you would like to freeze sausage rolls for later use, par bake for approx. 30 minutes and freeze portions. Reheat and complete cooking the pastry for 15-20 minutes

Update: Children's Healing Journey: Six months on...

UPDATE: My Children's Journey from Failsafe to healing...

So it has been just over 6 months since making some big changes in diet for my little ones. You can read about the first changes here http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2013/01/childrens-journey.html

Thought you may like to hear how they have been going... We introduced some healing foods and then added in vegetables and fruits as their tolerance grew. Remember they were on just a handful of foods before...

Coconut Oil

I continued using coconut oil in their cookies and cupcakes. We now add coconut flour too, there is very little rice flour. The quantity has increased from the initial tablespoon and they can eat unlimited quantities with no reaction.

Meat - ghee and coconut oil

Previously I cooked in sunflower oil and always baked their meat balls and any chicken in the oven very lightly so there was no browning at all. Now I fry their meat balls and chicken sticks in Ghee on the stove. I also bake with coconut oil. They now tolerate slow cooked lamb and chicken with no reaction.

Broth

Their tolerance for broth has also increased... instead of the 2 hour cooked broth, they are able to have long cooked chicken broth that has loads of healing gelatin.

Gelatin

We have been able to add Grass Fed Beef Gelatin from Great Lakes... we use it in sugar free marshmallows. This has been an exciting new food for them as it looks and tastes like a treat but is full of healing gelatin!

Fermented Veg

Every few days they have half a ml of fermented veg juice. It is a strong probiotic so I am still going slowly with this.

Kefir

Instead of increasing their food chemicals even more by using coconut kefir, I made some rice milk kefir. This now makes up their icecream (replacing the rice milk) as well as having 1 Tablespoon in their glass of rice milk each day. I started with 1/8 teaspoon and built up every few days. This is a strong probiotic so introduce slowly.

Vegetables

The healing foods have been amazing and the children's tolerance has improved so much. They now eat unlimited moderate salicylates... carrot, cucumber, sweet potato every day. I chose to introduce broccoli and avocado very early due to their nutrient profile and they can now eat both every day.

Fruit

This has been tricky... early on even tiny amounts of any fruit sent them crazy! With slow and steady perseverance I have added in small serves of banana (a slice once a week initially), they now have half a lady finger banana three times a week. My son is not keen on fruit, but my daughter is loving it and now eats strawberries, blueberries and kiwi fruit several times a week. 

Egg

Last month we challenged eggs. Previously they would get a lot of stomach pain and bleeding bowels when eaten. I bought chickens last year to see if I could tolerate their eggs as I was also sick when eating store bought eggs. That was a success for me, so I thought it was time, given how well they were doing, to try some egg. So far so good!! They are having egg cooked in cake every day now. We just tried scrambled egg on the weekend and that was fine too! yay!

Nuts

While trying to get my son to eat egg, I ended up challenging nuts. He was not liking his normal cake with an egg added... he was very upset with me and told me I had ruined his cake! No amount of telling him "that was what a good cake should be" was helping. At the time I was eating macadamia cake - lovely recipe which will be in my Grain Free Book avail soon - he really wanted some of MY cake. So I weakened and let them both have a small piece. I was very worried and watched them closely for hours, even when they fell asleep, checking for swelling, rashes etc. But to my delight (and theirs) NO reaction! So they now get to eat macadamia cake :)


The children have been so excited to try new foods and it has been a delight to watch their faces light up at all the new experiences.

 

I have been aiming to increase their chemical tolerance, so that I could decrease the grain component of their diet. I decided not to totally remove grains but limit them...

 

 

 

Here is a sample of a their meals before and now:

 

BEFORE

 

Breakfast

toast

rice puffs

rice milk smoothie

 

Morning tea

rice cupcake

rice cruskit and choko jam

chips

rice cookie

 

Lunch

lamb meat balls

celery sticks

potato hash

 

Dinner

chicken schnitzel

hot chips

choko sticks

 

 

NOW

 

 

Breakfast

lamb meatballs cooked in ghee

rice toast with avocado

rice milk kefir smoothie

 

Morning tea

coconut cookie with marshmallow

macadamia cake

banana or berries

coconut yoghurt

 

Lunch

chicken skewers cooked in ghee

cucumber

potato fritters

 

Dinner

slow cooked lamb

roast sweet potato

carrot

broccoli

 

And they can have rice kefir icecream if they want for dessert.

 

I cannot believe this has been achieved in just 6 months of slowly adding in healing foods. Credit is not only in food as medicine, but also from Homeopathy. We started Aperture Homeopathy with Dhanvantari College of Homeopathy in April. It has made such a huge impact on our lives. 

 

 

 

Jump into healing people!!! It is worth the ride... If you need some ideas to get you started as well as some recipes, check out my Failsafe to Healing Workbook

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza

Gluten Free Pizza bases

You can use any of my bread recipes but I prefer to use the Guar Gum recipe.

The recipe in all the books:

Rice based using Stand Mixer is in the first book, Kersten's Kitchen
Rice based using Thermomix is in Thirty Second Baking
Grain free using Buckwheat and Millet (can use Quinoa if you prefer) is in Failsafe to Healing Workbook

If you need some help when preparing the dough, please refer to http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2012/07/technique-bread-making-with-yeast.html

Step One

Once you have prepared the dough, using very wet hands, place into a greased baking dish. You can use a large rectangular lamington tray or if you want circles, use a cake tin

With your wet fingers, press out the dough until thin - you will be able to make more than one pizza with one quantity of dough. It will double in size after rising, so you want it to be half the thickness of what you want your pizza to be. I like a thin crust, so I make it very thin at this stage

Step Two

Put in your warm place to rise (that you prepared earlier when making the dough - see http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2012/07/technique-bread-making-with-yeast.html for assistance)
Leave till doubled, about 10 minutes

Step Three

If you are not using your base right now,
Partially cook - 15 minutes should be sufficient. It will still be soft on top, but set so you can remove it carefully from the tin.

Leave to cool on a baking rack until cold.
Cut to portion size and freeze in snap lock bags to use later

If you are using your base now,
Remove from warm place, cover with your desired toppings

For Failsafe topping ideas: http://pinterest.com/failsafetable/failsafe-pizza-topping-ideas/

Step Four

Bake - 180 degrees Celsius for approx. 20 - 30 minutes until golden and filling is cooked




Enjoy!

Marshmallow (refined sugar free)

Yummy squishy marshmallow

can be eaten as is, or used as icing for cupcakes, or used to sandwich cookies together, or dropped into hot chocolate

Ingredients

1C water
1C rice malt syrup (failsafe) or honey (grainfree/GAPS)
1t vanilla extract
pinch salt
3T gelatin*

 

Method

Place 1/2C water in TMX bowl with butterfly inserted
Sprinkle gelatin over the water
Mix speed 2 for 30 seconds to combine
Leave to rest

Place 1/2C water, rice malt syrup or honey, salt and vanilla in small pot
Bring to the boil and then reduce heat slightly
Using a thermometer, continue boiling until syrup reaches soft crack stage, approx. 130-140 degrees
(if using Rice Malt Syrup - only go to 125 degrees)
Remove from heat

Turn on TMX, speed 2 and slowly add boiling syrup (this should take about 40sec)
Now slowly increase the speed to 4 (take about 20sec)
Continue to whip at speed 4 for 3 minutes
(if using for icing, whip for just 2 minutes... gives you some extra time before it sets)

Marshmallow is now ready to use... remove butterfly

 

NOTE: If you do not have a Thermomix (TMX), use a stand mixer to whip the marshmallow.

Usually takes about 10 minutes.

for cubes

Scoop out mixture into a lined dish and leave to set in the fridge for a few hours

When set, lift out marshmallow (using baking paper you lined dish with) and cut with a sharp wet knife into small squares

Roll in desiccated coconut (you can toast** if you like) or roll in tapioca starch (dust most off). This will stop them from sticking together.

Store in a snaplock bag or Tupperware container in the fridge.

for icing

Working quickly as marshmallow will start setting quickly, spoon small amounts onto cupcakes or fill a piping bag and pipe on

You can use vanilla cupcakes from both my cookbooks, or use coconut rice cupcake from Failsafe to Healing Workbook

for biscuit sandwiches

Working quickly as marshmallow will start setting quickly, spoon small amounts onto the underside of cookie, place another cookie on top and press lightly

You can use the vanilla cookies from both my cookbooks or use the coconut rice cookie from Failsafe to Healing Workbook



*gelatin - Make sure you use a good quality gelatin. We use GREAT LAKES brand, which you can purchase from Island Organics. See supplier page for contact details

**toasted coconut - to toast coconut, place desiccated coconut into a dry frypan, cook over moderate heat, stirring, until coconut is golden... remove from pan. Store in an airtight container or snap lock bag.