Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms--fresh out of the oven

Once again I found myself with an abundance of mushrooms in the past week. What to do? I love mushrooms, but even I get tired of just frying them, or adding them to egg drop soup or making mushroom soup. I recently bought a nifty little book, Cooking With Coconut Flour, by Bruce Fife, N.D. In it I found a recipe for stuffed mushrooms, and the following recipe is based loosely on the one I found there. I rarely follow recipes to the T, and though these are similar, they are quite different. The coconut milk and coconut flour adds a subtle coconut flavor, which is an amazing combination with the mushrooms and shallots.

STUFFED MUSHROOMS

12 medium to large sized button mushrooms
2 teaspoons chopped shallots
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons coconut milk
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 1 T. fresh if available)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt--taste to season to your liking
1/4 teaspoon pepper
dash freshly ground nutmeg
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Clean the mushrooms, either brush off the dirt or wash, whichever you prefer. Make sure they are dry before proceeding.
2. Remove stems and set aside. Don't just cut the stems off, but actually pull them out of the cap so that there's an empty space to fill.
3. Chop the shallots and stems finely.
4. Saute the stems and shallots in 1 Tablespoon butter until shallots are softened.
5. Remove from heat, and add coconut milk, coconut flour, parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well.
6. Place the mushroom caps bottom-side up in a greased baking pan, and fill each cap with the mushroom stem/shallot mixture.
7. Top each mushroom with a small amount of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
8. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F. for 15 minutes.
Serve hot and enjoy!

Remove stems from caps by pulling them out

Finely chop the stems and shallots. I love my little KitchenAid chopper!

Place the caps bottom -side up in a greased baking sheet, fill with the stem mixture, and top with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 425 degrees F, uncovered, for 15 minutes

Simple Baked Apples

Baked apples. So easy, so delicious, and so good for you when made with no sugar added. Fruit is naturally sweet anyway, and you'll never miss the fact that these baked apples are sans sugar. If you simply must have them sweeter, you could add your sweetener of choice; my husband prefers brown sugar, and back in the days when I'd have added sugar, that would have been my choice as well.

BAKED APPLES

Apples--cut in half and remove core
cinnamon
vanilla
water

Prepare as many apples as you'd like to bake. Cut them in half and remove the cores, then place them face-up in a baking dish. Sprinkle them with cinnamon. Add about 1/4 inch of water to the bottom of the baking dish, and add a little vanilla, perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon depending on the size of the baking dish. Cover the dish with foil, and bake at 350 degrees F until the apples are tender. Baking time will depend on the apple variety...some apples stay firm, others will get mushy pretty fast.

Once you've baked them to your preferred done-ness, plate them up and drizzle water/vanilla mixture from the baking dish over the apples and serve.