Gluten, dairy, soy-free banana bread

Ingredients:

1 cup millet flour(I use Bob's Red Mill)
1 large overripe mashed banana
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp baking powder(there is a corn free baking powder you can buy at Whole Foods if corn is an issue)
1/4 cup oil(I use sunflower oil), you can substitute for any safe oil
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all wet and dry ingredients separately. Then add together and mix. Pour over a greased loaf pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick test comes out dry :).

We like this, it's so easy to make and so good!

Plantain(flour) pancakes

I have been meaning to post this and keep forgetting. This is one of our favorites. If you wanted to try something exotic, try plantain flour. Plantain and plantain flour are staples at our house. I normally use the flour for making pancakes. I don't really measure anything when I make plantain pancakes but I'll estimate for the sake of this post.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plantain flour
1 egg
2 tbsp sunflower oil or any oil you prefer
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp aluminum free baking soda
1/4 cup milk or anything non-dairy that you use. I mostly use hemp milk
2 tbsp Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Mix it all until all lumps are gone.  Heat skillet to medium.  Once on medium,  I normally turn it down to less than medium, on my stove it's on a "3."  It doesn't take long to cook so keep an eye on it and flip it to cook the other side.  Serve warm with organic maple syrup.

(Non-dairy) Cheesy and crumbly chicken

I am missing breaded chicken so I came  up with this recipe.  This is an easy dish and you don't need a lot of prep time and cooking time either.

Ingredients:

4 pieces of chicken breasts, thawed
1/2 cup of shredded  Daiya cheese mozarella flavor
1/2 cup of crushed Nature's Path rice cereal
2 tablespoon of organic Spectrum shortening (not melted)

Preheat the stove at 425 degrees F.  Cover the chicken with the shortening, then roll around the crushed rice cereal and Daiya (cheese substitute).   Make sure it's covered.   Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until done.

For the side dish:

1 package of organic green beans
1/2 cup water
Leftover bacon fat(from frying bacon), you can use any animal fat you have such as tallow or duck.

In a frying pan, put the green beans and the water. Bring to a boil. Let it boil for 5 minutes or until tender. Then when the water is nearly gone, add the bacon fat and stir it around.  Serve hot with the chicken.

My daughter loved this, she was begging me to make more later.

Buckwheat banana muffins

I bought raw organic buckwheat grouts from Whole Foods, sprouted them and after that I ground it into flour.  I received a manual grain mill for Christmas from my sister and have been putting it to use.  I've mainly used it for buckwheat.

I took some pictures can't find them. I'll post some pictures later.

Ingredients:

1 cup sprouted buckwheat flour.

1 large ripe mashed banana

1/4 cup partially melted Spectrum Palm Shortening

1/4 tsp aluminum-free baking soda

1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey if you can tolerate it)

1/4 cup hemp milk

If you are able to sprout your own flour that would be great, otherwise just use regular buckwheat flour. The point is sprouting is to make it easier to digest.

Mix all the ingredients.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until done. Please check since every oven is different.

My daughter loves this muffin, she a bunch in one sitting :).  Enjoy!

Paleo chocolate cookies again

I made these twice now because they were a big hit at my house. I've had to hide some just so I can eat one!  This was a recipe from http://howtoeatandlive.com/2012/02/paleo-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe/.

By this way, this recipe is egg-free, great for those who are avoiding eggs.  This was the best paleo chocolate chip cookies I've ever had.   I think the picture speaks for itself!

Paleo Irish Soda Bread

Ever since we went paleo a year and half ago, we haven't had any Irish soda bread.  My husband is of Irish descent and this was one of those things that I made that he truly enjoyed. We used to be just gluten and dairy-free so I would make the soda bread with millet and sorghum flours.   I'm so glad we can have soda bread again! I adapted this from Elana's Pantry's Irish soda bread recipe.

2 and 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup raisins
2 eggs
2 tablespoons raw honey
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar(or you can also use lemon)


Mix all the wet ingredients separately in a bowl.  Mix the dry ingredients separately in a bowl as well.  Then mix both.   Form into a dough and put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Please see picture above, it's about 8 inches sideways and about an inch and a half of height.   Score the dough with a sharp knife.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, turn off the stove and let it sit in there for another 10 minutes. Take it out and cool it on a rack for half an hour before serving.  It tastes great by itself but my 4 year old loves it with apricot jam.

 Snickerdoodles

I wanted to make it paleo but I didn't have coconut sugar or date sugar at home. So I just used organic cane sugar, just this time. 

This was based on Jamie Oliver's recipe with a little exception.  I don't like stuff that's overly sweet so I used less sugar.  I also made it dairy-free.

3/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla
a dash of sea salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup Spectrum Shortening

Sugar/cinnamon for rolling the cookies:

1 tbsp sugar
Some cinnamon, I didn't measure

Mix eggs, vanilla, sugar, eggs and Spectrum shortening.  Add the coconut flour and make sure to remove all lumps.  Mix well. Set aside for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Make dough into small balls, roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture, and flatten on the baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Enjoy!  They're so delicious!

Nibmor chocolate review

Who doesn't want chocolate? I don't know anyone who doesn't.  Anyway, hubby was browsing at our Whole Foods and found this chocolate and bought it for me. I had to share my thoughts about it.  It's not exactly paleo or GAPS-friendly due to the fact that it has agave nectar, but I was willing to try it.  It has a different taste, a slightly different feel and texture. It's softer than regular chocolate. I like that it has 65% cacao and it's been crafted at low temperatures to minimize the loss of nutrients and flavonoids.  It's also non-GMO which is a huge deal for me.

There are several flavors but I prefer the plain one.  At 3.99 a bar it costs more than regular store-bought chocolate but it's worth it.

I like this chocolate and I will continue to buy it!

Craving for Chocolate

I've been craving for chocolate and just happened to have some Enjoy Life chocolate baking chips at home.  So this is my really simple, easy creation.  Just 1 cup of dark chocolate chips and 1 tbsp virgin coconut oil melted and mixed together and poured in a mold.  You can even use this concoction to dip fruits in.  Kind of like a fondue.  You can add nuts, shredded coconut....go wild with it!

Put them in the freezer for 15 minutes or til it gets hard. Then enjoy!

Coconut Waffles

This is quick and easy and paleo!   It's always a hit at my house.  I eyeballed everything so I'm giving you approximate measurements in this post.

1/4 cup coconut flour
2 large duck eggs (you can use chicken eggs too but you may need 3).
1 tsp GF vanilla
2 tbsp coconut milk(I made my own)
a dash of salt
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil

Pre-heat your waffle maker.  Mix everything and make sure to remove all lumps.   Cook! Serve. I served this with honey lemon creme that I purchased from an SCD-legal website.

Grain-free chocolate muffin/cupcake

Nom, nom, nom

My daughter and I have been feasting on these! Very easy to make and it freezes well.  It melts in your mouth. The secret is in the egg whites.  I use 2 free-range eggs and then 2 egg whites. The muffins came out very fluffy inside but not gooey.

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter (or any other nut butter)
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 very ripe banana
2 tbs chocolate powder(I used Hershey's)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp lemon
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix everything together. Add the lemon juice after everything's mixed.  Bake in a lined muffin pan for 20 minutes or til toothpick comes out clean.

Dairy-free Peas and Carrots soup

I was reading a story online and in it a teenager makes peas and carrots soup for a cancer-survivor.   I've never had it before so naturally, it made me curious and I just had to make it.  I googled and tweaked a recipe that would work with our food issues.  So here it is.

*Ingredients:

1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup diced carrots
Some diced celery stalks
A dash of thyme
A dash of salt and pepper
A few pieces of chopped garlic
A cup or so of hemp milk ( you can also use almond or any other dairy-free option.  Use real milk if you can tolerate it)
A tbsp of tapioca starch to thicken it (you may use arrowroot or potato starch too)

Saute garlic then add everything to the pot.  Bring to a boil.  When vegetables are tender, turn off the stove.  Let it sit for a little bit.  Puree.  Serve!

I initially made this with coconut milk.  It was lovely!  The 2nd time (in the photo) was with unsweetened hemp milk.

*I eyeball when I cook.  I apologize for the approximations. 

Chestnut flour muffin with chocolate!

This is the first time I baked with chestnut flour.  It came out great!  There's no dairy, grain, eggs, soy in this recipe.  I normally use honey or agave nectar but it would be too watery so I went ahead and used beet sugar.  I hope you enjoy these muffins! They were so good.  My daughter gobbled one up and wanted more!

1 cup chestnut flour *
1/2 cup beet sugar (or less, it's a little too sweet for me, next time I'll use 1/4)
Equivalent of 1 egg, egg-replacer
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup hemp milk
4 tbsp Spectrum shortening, softened for 30 seconds in the microwave.
1/2 Tbsp baking powder (make sure it's the gluten-free kind)
1/4 tsp baking soda
A dash of salt
A handful of chocolate chips *I use sugar-free and purchased them from Nutsonline.com

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Mix all the wet ingredients together til smooth/creamy.   Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients together.   Mix and then slowly fold in the chocolate chips.  Bake in a cupcake-lined tin for 20 minutes or til toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!  They're yummy!
*Bought from Nutsonline.com in case anyone is wondering.