Banana Bread

This is from the website "civilized caveman cooking"...here is the actual link.  

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/paleo-banana-bread/

This was REALLY good, fast and easy and it rose like a real banana bread. As the site suggested, i made mine into 12 big muffins and slathered them in butter when they were still a tiny bit warm! divine!!!   This is the website picture. my muffins of course were dark as i added the suggested cocoa powder :)

Ingredients

• 4 bananas, yellow (they do not need to be overly ripe but you can if you want)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond butter (or any nut butter, i.e. macadamia, pecan, etc)
• 4 tablespoons grass-fed butter, melted (can substitute coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine your bananas, eggs, and nut butter, and grass-fed butter in a blender, food processor, or mixing bowl and mix well (if using a mixing bowl you need a good hand-mixer)
3. Once all of your ingredients are blended, add in your coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and sea salt and mix well
4. Grease a 9×5 glass (see notes) loaf pan with a fat of your choice. If you use a metal pan it will probably bake in 35-40 minutes so start checking at 35 to ensure the middle stays moist
5. Pour in your batter and spread it evenly throughout
6. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
7. Remove from oven and flip your bread out onto a cooling rack
8. Slice and serve

Variations

1. Cranberry Orange – Only use 3 tablespoons of butter. Add zest of one whole orange diced, juice of one whole orange, and1 cup dried cranberries or fresh if you want
2. Chocolate Blueberry – Add 1 cup of fresh blueberries and ½ cup of cocoa powder
3. Pumpkin Pecan – Reduce the almond butter to ¼ cup and add ½ cup of pumpkin puree and 1 cup of roughly chopped pecan pieces

Notes

If you want to make these into muffins, use the same recipe and for mini muffins bake approximately 25 mins and normal size muffins 30-35 minutes.

Paleo Banana Spice Coffee Cake

This was pretty good but I think next time, I will try and find a way to incorporate some coffee flavour, either with instant coffee or actual brewed coffee...maybe instead of the vanilla extract? not sure but i would really like to have it with some coffee flavour.  I think it would be great with coconut whipped cream on top!!  

Here is the link to the original recipe. (the picture is mine )

http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/08/banana-spice-coffee-cake/

1 cup ripe banana, mashed
5 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (plus more for greasing pan)


Topping:
1/2 cup almond meal (almonds blended down to flour consistency)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a glass Pyrex 8×8 dish with coconut oil, set aside.In a large bowl mix together mashed banana, eggs, vanilla extract and maple syrup (if using) with a hand mixer until all the wet ingredients is incorporated.

In a small bowl, whisk together coconut flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and baking soda.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and using hand mixer mix until a batter forms.  Stir in melted coconut oil into batter until well incorporated.

For topping:  In a small bowl using a form blend together almond meal, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and coconut oil.  Blend until the mixture forms a crumb like texture.  Add more coconut oil if the crumb mixture does not form.  Only about 1/2 a tablespoon.

Pour batter into prepared glass 8×8 dish and sprinkle topping evenly across the top.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then cut into squares and serve.

Raw Chocolate Pumpkin Pecan Macaroons

I found these on the website Civilized Caveman.  Here is the link: http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/raw-chocolate-pumpkin-pecan-macaroons/

Fast, easy to make and oh so good! Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup pecan flour (or almond flour) - i ground my own in my coffee grinder
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (i made my own from roasted pumpkin)
• 1/4 cup raw organic honey
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 tablespoon almond butter or sunbutter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or almond extract or orange)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Combine your coconut, pecan flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and mix well
2. Add in your pumpkin, honey, coconut oil, almond butter and vanilla and stir well until all ingredients have been evenly incorporated
3. Use a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon and scoop rounded balls onto a plate or cookie sheet     
4. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour to solidify
5. Store in the freezer or refrigerator and serve cold

I got 35 of these using a 1 TBSP scoop. as you can see, i rolled some into balls and used the measuring spoon for the rest. I then rolled mine in coconut.

Nut Free Paleo Bread

After making this recipe this morning, I realized that I had actually made it before but I didn't post it. So I am now :) It comes from the website The Paleo Mom and here is the link to this recipe:  http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/02/recipe-nut-free-paleo-bread.html

It is IMPORTANT to note that although this looks like a huge loaf, it's not. I made it in a special sized loaf pan that I ordered on line. It's called a magic loaf pan and its only 7.5 x 3.5 inches (There should be link to the pan below if I got this to work right)  Here is a pic of my finished bread. I plan to eat it by making it into French toast :) i'll post a pic when I do.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 4 Tbsp grass-fed butter (you could use Refined Coconut Oil or Palm Shortening as an alternative)
• ¼ cup Tapioca Flour (as usual I didn't have this - thought I did, but was wrong, so instead i used what I had on hand which was Arrowroot flour)
• ¼ cup Coconut Flour
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• ½ tsp Cream of Tartar
• ¼ tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1.    Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a 7.5″x3.5″ Loaf Pan with wax paper.  Grease the wax paper with coconut oil (if you have a good non-stick pan, you should be able to get away with just greasing it really well).
2.    Melt the butter (or coconut oil if using) in the microwave and let cool slightly.
3.    Beat eggs in a blender or food processor until frothy, about 30 seconds.  Add the remaining ingredients and process again until smooth.  Let the batter sit for a minute to thicken.
4.    Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Spread it out so that the surface is even.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Enjoy!

Basic Vietnamese Dipping Sauce

Basic Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham)

I love Vietnamese food :) lately, I've been making a dish where I saute whatever veggies I have on hand (usually broccoli, peppers and onion), throw this in a bowl with a couple of big handfuls of bean sprouts (which I have warmed in advance), leftover heated meat and this sauce. I then top it all off with shredded lettuce, green onions, cilantro and hot sauce.....so good!!! - next time, i'll add a pic of the whole dish other than just the sauce :)

Makes ¾ cup

3 tablespoons lime juice (1 fat, thin skin lime)
2 tablespoons sugar (or honey)
½ cup water
2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

Optional additions:
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon homemade chili garlic sauce or store bought (tuong ot toi)

1. Make limeade. Combine the lime juice, sugar and water, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Taste and as yourself this question: Adjust the flavors to balance out the sweet and sour.

2. Finish with fish sauce. Add the fish sauce and any of the optional ingredients. Taste again and adjust the flavors to your liking, balancing out the sour, sweet, salty and spicy. Aim for a bold, forward finish -- perhaps a little stronger than what you'd normally like. This sauce is likely to be used to add final flavor to foods wrapped in lettuce or herbs, which are not salted and therefore need a little lift to heighten the overall eating experience. 

Notes

Advance Preparation - This sauce may be prepared early in the day and left to sit at room temperature.

Variation - Use half lime juice and half Japanese rice vinegar for a less assertive sauce. Some delicately flavored dishes require this.

Sunbutter

I was (am) getting tired of almond butter so searched and found this recipe from the website www.mmmmpaleo.com  

(here is the link to the recipe) http://www.mmmmpaleo.com/2012/04/sunbutter.html 

The pic below is from the mmmmpaleo site.......I took pics of mine using my Blackberry but was not smart enough to figure out how to get them from my phone to here. :)

This made a nice, full mason jar full of sunbutter which to my pleasant surprise was oh, so very good!!! perfect amount of salt and sweet!!  I used this on pancakes, celery and ate it straight from the jar! 

Ingredients 

• 1 16oz bag raw sunflower seeds (do not get the ones that are already roasted as they will not have enough moisture and result in a mealy sunbutter)
• 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp palm sugar (or other sweetener of your choice)  I didn't use this
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper - I toasted mine in a pan, in batches, onthe stove if you can't use your oven or if you are like me and tend to forget what you put in the oven.

2. If using the oven, checking the level of "toastiness" every few minutes. The seeds should be LIGHTLY toasted, not brown. If your pan wasn't big enough to create a single layer of seeds, be sure to mix them up partway through cooking so the seeds on the top don't cook faster than those on the bottom. Mix as often as necessary until they look uniformly toasted. 

3. Combine the toasted sunflower seeds in a blender with the sea salt and palm sugar. If you have a high power blender like a VitaMix that comes with a tamper (looks like a plunger) then process on highest variable speed and use the plunger to push the mixture down into the blades. If you do not have a tamper, you may have to stop the blender periodically to push the mixture down with a wood spoon or spatula. You could also use a food processor on high, but this may take a bit longer. At first, the mixture may look mealy, but keep chugging along and processing it until it begins to look creamier and get a light sheen. Sunflower seeds release their own oils over time - so have patience! You could be processing the mixture up to 10 minutes straight. At about the 5 minute mark, it should definitely start looking creamy, though. At this point, you could add in your teaspoon of honey. 

4. Once the mixture gets fairly creamy, add in your olive oil one teaspoon at a time, processing in between. You can lower the speed of your blender just enough so that it will blend the oil in without need to be pushed towards the blades. The result should be a nice creamy sunbutter.

5. Your mixture may be hot, so spoon it into a mason jar and let it cool off to the side. Once cooled, seal tightly and store in the refrigerator. The mixture may separate if left in the fridge for too long, so if that happens, just give it a good stir before serving.

Breakfast Lasagna

Even though the title says "Breakfast", we has this supper and it was delicious! Here is the link to the original recipe.  http://paleomg.com/breakfast-lasagna/  (I LOVE THIS SITE)

If you check the website above, my picture below look a little different than those on the site. It's because of the eggs, which I mention in the instructions below, in red.

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  35 mins

Total time:  55 mins

Serves: 3-5

 

Ingredients

• 1 yam or sweet potato, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1lb chorizo or breakfast sausage (depending on the spice level you’d like) - I used a combination of hot italian sausage and grass fed beef
• 1 container sliced mushrooms
• 1 yellow onion, sliced thin
• ⅓ cup canned coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 6 eggs, whisked
• 2 tablespoons fat (I used bacon fat)

NOTE: I made some changes/additions in red :)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place a large skillet over medium heat and add your chorizo or breakfast sausage to cook down.
3. Add a medium skillet or saucepan over medium heat on a different burner, and add a tablespoon of fat. Place onions in to begin to caramelize. Salt and pepper the onions while they cook. Once your onions have cooked for about 8-10 minutes, add your mushrooms and cover to help cook your mushrooms. (I added a handful of baby spinach to this mixture)
4. Now, while your meat and onions/mushrooms cook down, thinly slice your sweet potato/yam lengthwise with a mandolin so you have even strips. If you don’t have a mandolin, just use a sharp knife and thinly slice each slice.
5. Pull out your 8×8 glass baking dish and layer the bottom of your dish with thinly sliced sweet potato/yam.
6. In a bowl, mix your coconut milk with garlic powder, onion powder, and a bit of salt and pepper. Whisk to mix. I like that phrase…because I made it up.
7. Once your meat is done cooking and your onions are beautifully caramelized, beginning your lasagna layering.
8. Place a scoop full of mushrooms and onions on top of your first sweet potato layer, spreading it out, then place a spoonful of your meat across that first layer.
9. Then layer another layer of sweet potatoes on top of your onions and meat, and keep on layering. Mushrooms and onions, meat, sweet potato…until you run out of ingredients. The amount of layers you have is all up to you!
10. Once your layers are finished, pour your coconut milk mixture over your lasagna so it can creep into all the crevices.  (see below in red)
11. Salt and pepper the top of your lasagna then place aluminum foil on top to create a seal around your baking dish.
12. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until your sweet potatoes are completely cooked through.
13. When your lasagna is done baking, let cool for about 10 minutes.
14. While the lasagna cools, place one of your skillets over medium heat, add a tablespoon of fat, and add your whisked eggs to make scrambled eggs. 
15. When eggs are cooked through, place them on top of your slightly cooled lasagna. (I whipped my eggs with my coconut milk and poured it all over the lasagna).
16. Cut into squares.  (I topped mine with cooked, chopped up bacon and let it sit on the lasagna during the 10 min sitting period)
17. Serve with a couple sliced of avocado for good measure.