Breakfast ideas

A typical breakfast for us is eggs and bacon. Its nice to change things up a bit though so the kids don't get sick of it. Here is what we eat. I will try to post the recipes soon.

• Eggs: scrambled, fried in olive oil, or steamed with some water and a lid. 

• Meat: Bacon, Canadian Bacon, sausage patties all nitrate free. Sometimes I just cook up a bunch of meat and give them a fruit smoothie and they are good to go. 

• Frittata: I will take a 8x8 Pan and spray with coconut oil or Olive oil. I put left over carnitas, or ground sausage or turkey from tacos, ham, or bacon on the bottom. Next I take whatever veggies I have. For Liam I saute them so they are a little less crunchy. Don't saute too much because they will cook down in oven. His favorite is bell pepper, spinach or kale, and mushrooms. Savy my daughter loves all those too as well as asparagus, onions and garlic. After you layer the veggies on top on the meat you pour over beaten eggs. For our family its usually 10-12 eggs. If you have ramekin's you can make individual ones for your kids. Then just place pan in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Take a toothpick and poke the center, if it comes out clean then its cooked. I make this ahead and cut up into squares and store in a glass container and reheat in the mornings for school. 

• Smoothies: My kids love smoothies for breakfast. I make fruit ones, chocolate banana ones. I will post these recipes soon.

• Muffins: I make muffins up a head of time. Right now my kids are loving an almond flour blueberry muffin. click here for the recipe 

• Oatmeal: When Liam isn't feeling so great he still asks for Oatmeal. This would be a cheat he has that isn't Paleo. I let him eat it though because it seems to feel good on his tummy.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. 

Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups Almond Flour (the finer the better)

2 Eggs

2 Egg whites or 1/3 cup of organic egg whites

1/4 cup of Agave, Honey or Coconut Sugar. I use whatever I have on hand

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 TBL Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 TBS Grape seed oil, Sunflower Oil, Avocado Oil or Coconut Oil. I have used all of them and they are             all great. 

1 Cup blueberries. Recently I ran out of blueberries so I did 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup                          Raspberries and it was delicious. 

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Place all ingredients together except the berries in a bowl. Mix up until smooth. I have put it all in my Blentec and it works great too. Fold in Berries. If you don't have paper muffin cups spray the muffin tin with your favorite oil. Scoop batter into muffin tin with a scooper. I love my melon ball scooper. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Bone Broth

When Liam's tummy is really bothering him or when he is in a flare up my go to is ALWAYS Bone Broth. It heals a leaky gut because the gelatin in bone broth protects and heals the mucosal lining of the digestive tract and helps aid in the digestion of nutrients. It fights inflammation in that it is very high in the anti-inflammatory amino acids glycine and proline. It also helps with bone formation, growth and repair. The calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in bone broth helps our bones to grow and repair. 

I use the broth for just drinking hot when he isn't feeling well or if were sick with colds. I will also make Chicken Soup with the chicken and add lots of yummy vegetables like carrots, celery, green beans, onion, etc...

Gut-Healing Chicken Broth Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 organic whole chicken

• 8 c of water

• 4 -6 stalks of celery, finely chopped

• ½ white or yellow onion, finely chopped

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

• 1 inch ginger root, finely chopped

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

• ½ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

• 2 Organic carrots chopped

Directions:

Place all of the above ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low heat for 8 -10 hours.

I like to cook mine until the meat is falling away from the bones.

I make this just before bed and it’s ready and hot for breakfast.

You can store any excess broth in the freezer and defrost for a later time.

Gluten Free Dairy Free Banana Bread Muffins

Banana Bread Muffins

I have been tweaking this recipe and think I finally have it. My kids love the muffins for breakfast or as a snack in their lunch. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

3 ripe bananas mashed
4 beaten eggs
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup agave
1/2 tea liquid vanilla stevia
3 Tablespoons Coconut oil or Grape seed oil

Dry ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut flour sifted
1/4 cup tapioca flour
pinch of sea salt
1/2 to 1 tea cinnamon
1/2 tea. baking soda
1/2 tea baking powder

oven temperature 350 degrees

In your mixer mash bananas, then add eggs and mix. Add honey, agave, stevia and oil. Mix thoroughly. In separate bowl mix all dry ingredients together, don't forget to sift the coconut flour first. Add dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and mix.

Place cupcake liners into your muffin tins and add mixture until its 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
 

Gluten and Dairy Free Cake Pops

Gluten Free Cupcake Pops

1 Chocolate Cake, from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, page 84 (view the PDF)

1 Bag Wilton Chocolate

1/4 - 1/2 cup Coconut oil

Sprinkles

*Dairy Free frosting like Pillsbury is optional to help bind and give a creamer taste to the cake

Special Equipment:

30 paper lollipop sticks

2-4 Styrofoam blocks

Bake Chocolate Cake as directed from the The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook. Cool cake so that you can crumble into a big bowl. If choosing to bind cake with frosting add just enough to bind it together. If your opting to roll without the frosting take a clump of cake and knead together like you would play dough. Next roll into 1 inch ball. After rolling, put on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Once all the balls are on your cookie sheet freeze for at least an hour.

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a boiling pot of water on medium heat. If you have a double broiler than heat it up with that. To make the chocolate thinner add 1/4 cup coconut oil. If you don't have coconut oil you can use Crisco. Take your cake balls out and let sit for 5 minutes. One at a time, dip about ½ inch of the tip of a lollipop stick into melted chocolate. Next, Insert the lollipop stick straight into a cake ball, no more than halfway. Holding stick with cake ball attached, dip entire cake ball into melted chocolate, until covered. Twirl  any excess chocolate coating off the cake pop so it is evenly coated, then apply sprinkles. Place cake pop in Styrofoam block. Complete with remaining cake pops and store in refrigerator. 

*You can store these gluten free cake pops in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

*You can also freeze just the balls for up to two weeks, then make the pops the day you want to serve them

Chicken Piccata and Dairy Free Risotto

Our family loves Chicken Piccata. The lemon sauce drizzled over chicken makes the dish. When we started this journey of going gluten free and dairy free, I thought Risotto was not gluten free and if it was how, would I make with without Parmesan cheese and creamy marscapone cheese. I have been craving it for weeks and finally started to do a bit of research. To my surprise Arborio rice is Gluten Free. Wahoo, I was so excited. Next I was on a mission to create it without dairy. Last night I tried it and my family did not notice it was missing dairy. I hope you enjoy it, like we did. 

Chicken Piccata


4 Organic Boneless Chicken Breast or 20 Chicken tenders
1/2 Cup to 1 Cup Gluten Free all purpose flour
Olive oil for frying
1/2 tea sea salt
1/2 tea pepper
1/2 cup Organic Chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
1-2 Lemons juiced depending on how much lemon flavor you want
1-2 Tbl Capers depending if you like them or how salty you want it


First pound the chicken breast so they are like a cutlet. If you are using chicken tenders just leave them as they are. Next put GF flour in pie dish or plate along with the salt and pepper. Get a skillet pan that will fit all the chicken and put the olive oil in it and heat on medium. Once the oil is hot, dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and place in hot pan. Fry on both sides until the chicken is cooked through and you have a nice crispy texture. Set Chicken on paper towel to rest, while your cook all the meat. Once the meat is cooked and resting pour your wine in the pan and scrap the bottom of the pan and get all the crunchy bits mixed into the wine. Once the wine is cooked off add the lemon juice, chicken broth and capers. Let it come to a lite boil and add the chicken back in. Put a lid on the pan and put the temperature to low so it stays warm while you make the risotto. 


Dairy Free Risotto:


1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 tea sea salt 
3 Tbl olive oil plus 2 Tbl olive oil for after
1/2 cup white wine
2 1/2 cups Organic Chicken Broth heated, I do this in the microwave. 


Take a sauce pan and heat up with the 3 Tbl olive oil on medium/low heat. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes. Next add the rice and sea salt and cook for another 2 minutes continuously stirring.  Next add the wine until its cooked off. The trick to Risotto is to never stop stirring it. Now add about 1/4-1/3 cup of the hot broth and stir it until the liquid absorbs into the rice. Keep adding the same amount of liquid when the rice has absorbed the previous liquid. After about 20-30 minutes the rice will be soft and have a creamy texture to it and your hot broth should be gone. If the rice is still a little under cooked add more broth, but only a 1/2 cup, because you don't want it to turn mushy. Next, mix the remaining 2 Tbl of olive oil into the risotto and serve.


I poured some of the Chicken Piccata sauce over the rice and chicken and served it with saute green beans. The kids ate it up and asked for seconds. If your kids don't like the lemon sauce you can keep their chicken out of the sauce and serve it up like chicken fingers. Give them some ketchup or honey mustard sauce and they will love it.

Lemon Bars - GF, DF and Refined SF

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For the crust:
1  cup  sorghum flour
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon palm sugar, in a pinch you can use brown sugar, but then that makes them have some refined sugar in them


For the lemon filling
4 organic eggs
1/2 cup plus 1/4 teaspoon agave
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
Zest of whole lemon
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice I like to put some of the pulp in it too
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut finely shredded


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with think layer of coconut oil.
Put the sorghum flour, sunflower seeds, and xanthan gum a food processor and process until the sunflower seeds are finely chopped.  Add the coconut oil and palm sugar and pulse until the mixture is a crumbly meal.  Press the mixture into the prepared baking pan.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until the crust is lightly golden brown.
While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.  Put the eggs in a blender and pulse several times until the yolks are broken.  Add the agave, vanilla,  arrowroot, lemon zest, lemon juice, and coconut milk .  Pulse several times until thoroughly combined.   Pour the lemon mixture over the hot crust then sprinkle the shredded coconut evenly over the top.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until the center of the lemon bars are set.  Let cool and put in refrigerator. When ready to serve cut up into squares and sprinkle more shredded coconut on top to make pretty. Enjoy!


This recipe is from Amy Green at simply and sugar and gluten free

Fun Kid Lunch!

So today I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch. Both could not give me an answer, so I said" how about hot dogs?" Both were not thrilled but said "okay". I had not been to the store in a week so pickings were slim. I tried to come up with something fun. I found some sticks and made hot dogs on a stick. Who would have thought they would be such a hit! They devoured them as if they had never had them before. I think this will be a new favorite in our household.

I took 4 nitrate free beef hot dogs from Trader Joe's and boiled them on the stove. Then I heated up the George Foreman Grill up while breaking kabob sticks. Then I stuck the sticks in the hot dogs and grilled them for 2-3 minutes. Put whatever condiment they like on the plate with some fresh fruit and you have an easy fun lunch!

Liam's cookies

Liam's Cookies:

Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free and Dairy Free

Ingredients:

3 1/2 c. almond flour

1/2 c. coconut oil or Grape Seed oil if you don't like the coconut flavor

1/2 c.  agave nectar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. Dark Chocolate Chips or Vegan chocolate chips from organic and fair trade


*Peanut Butter is not Paleo, but sometimes my kiddos miss peanut butter cookies. Occasionally I will add 1/4 cup Organic all natural Peanut butter. 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a Silpat non-stick silicon baking liner found either online or bed bath beyond. 

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.  In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat the eggs, agave, and vanilla extract with a mixer. I use my kitchen aide instead of a hand mixer and it works great. 

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and beat with mixer until combined.  Add the melted coconut oil or grape seed oil which ever you prefer into the batter. Be careful the oil tends to fly out until it combines with the batter.   Add chocolate chips then scoop a ball of dough and drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet. Sometimes I make mickey mouse shapes or snowman. Be creative the kids will love it. 

Bake for  8 minutes and let cool on cookie sheet to let cook a tad longer. 

Store in a plastic air tight container if not eaten in one sitting or store in the freezer. These are super good frozen. This recipe came from Everyday Paleo. I tweaked it just a bit to my kiddos liking :)

Gluten Free Banana Pancakes

My friend Becky sent me this recipe. We have made one similar to it. Give it a try and tell me what you think! 

The recipe can be found on Norcal Strength and Conditioning website. I agree with the suggestion of adding baking soda. Almond Flour definitely does not rise on its own. 

Ingredients needed: 

2 Ripe Bananas
4 Eggs
1 Cup almond flour
1 Cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 Tablespoon of vanilla
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon 

Directions:


Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Heat coconut oil on medium/low.  Pour 1/4 cup of batter into pan and cook pancake till bottom is browned, then flip.  Be sure to watch these–they can burn easily!

Top with more coconut oil, almond butter, butter, mashed strawberries, or maple syrup.