Day 18: Secret Ingredient

The other day I read an article about how to make homemade dairy-free, sugar-free coffee creamer. Basically you use dates and water to make a paste that is a natural sweetener that can be used in place of honey, maple syrup, sugar, etc. A couple of times this week have looked for dates at different stores with no luck, which in a way was fine with me because dates, figs and most dried, wrinkly fruit in general gives me the heebie-jeebies. Nothing about putting that in my coffee appealed to me.

However, today I wanted to make barbecue sauce. After researching different paleo recipes, I realized that in order to get a sauce similar to what we are used to making, I needed some sort of sweetener. Faced with the fact that it was naptime for the kids and I didn't have dates, I found some raisins and decided to give it a go. I threw about a cup of raisins into the food processor with about a half cup of hot water and let it go for a while. It turned into a syrup-y paste. I mixed about 2 tablespoons of it into the barbecue sauce that had already been simmering, and it totally brought the flavors together.

While feeling adventurous with the new secret ingredient, I decided to go ahead and mix up some coffee creamer. I can't say for sure if it is good or not, but will let you know tomorrow. Recipe below.

Breakfast: egg casserole with chicken apple sausage, banana, coffee with coconut milk and cinnamon

Lunch: taco salad (same as yesterday) leftover pot roast, avocado, red bell pepper, mixed baby greens, crushed up plantain chips, dressed with salsa and fresh lime juice

Dinner: Grilled pork chop, mashed cauliflower "potatoes"(steamed cauliflower, salt, pepper, beef broth, coconut milk - next time I will add garlic, I just forgot this time), roasted carrots and barbecue sauce

The barbecue sauce was a nice addition and I'm sure we will continue to use it on other things. Here's the recipe(ish - I didn't measure much):
6 oz tomato paste
1cup liquid coffee
1 cup beef broth
splash of apple cider vinegar
2 fresh garlic cloves, pressed or micro-planed
salt
cumin
pepper
2-3 T raisin paste

Combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until desired consistency (the longer the better to mix the flavors). I simmered ours for about an hour.

Sweetened Coffee Creamer
1 C coconut milk
1/4 c raisin paste

Wisk together. Strain (I double-strained mine to make sure it was really smooth). Store in the fridge. If it turns out that this is good, I'll experiment with different flavors.