Thursday, February 28, 2013

Paleo Chicken Salad With Twist - Paleo on a Budget

Ingredients:
• 1.5 lb chicken
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 3 spicy sausages
• 1/2 cucumber
• 2-3 handfuls of grapes
• .5 tbsp Dried Basil
• .5 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Dried Dill
• .5 tbsp Oregano
• 3-4 Tbsp Homemade Paleo Mayo
• 2 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
• S+P
• Coconut oil or some kind of fat for the pan

How To:
• Cook the chicken however you’d like, I chopped mine up into pieces {bite size} and pan fried it in coconut oil.
• In a pan cook up your onions in your fat of choice, and get them nice and caramelized {remember to take your time with that!}. About half way through their cooking time, I like to remove the casing of my sausages and crumble it into the onions.
• Once those are cooked put them and your chicken in a big old bowl. Now chop up your grapes in half or quarters your pick, and peel / chop your cucumber into bite size-ish pieces.
• Add in the Spices / dried herbs, salt + Pepper and mix really well. It’s not a very “wet” chicken salad {not a huge fan of them} so feel free to add more mayo if you’d like, but if you’re going to let this sit over night I’d add some extra mayo just so it doesn’t dry out or anything.
• Taste test it, adjust spices as needed and it’s done! Optionally you could switch out the cucumber for diced tomato, whatever you have on hand would work wel

Monday, February 18, 2013

Paleo Banana Bread - Civilized Caveman Cooking Creation

Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
  2. Combine your bananas, eggs, and nut butter, and grass-fed butter in a blendtec, 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 (I used grass-fed butter). 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

Best Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins - Amy Layne Paradigm

The Best Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins

Prep time: 5 Minutes – Cook time: 25 Minutes – Total time: 30 Minutes
Yield: Makes 12 Regular Muffins or 24 Mini Muffins

Ingredients:
  • 2 Cups Almond Flour
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Egg Whites
  • 1/4 Cup Agave (Honey, Maple Syrup or Stevia)
  • 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Dash of Salt
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Tbsp Coconut Oil (or Other Healthy Oil)
  • 1 Cup Blueberries
Directions:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
  2. Place all ingredients excluding blueberries into your food processor and blend until smooth.
  3. Once completely mixed fold in blueberries.
  4. Spray muffin tin or mini muffin tin with a healthy, non-stick cooking spray.
  5. Evenly scoop batter into muffin tin.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack.
  8. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Maple Frosting - The Healthy Gluten Free Life

Cinnamon Maple Frosting
½ C Palm Shortening
1/3 C pure maple syrup
Pinch sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 TBSP Arrowroot starch
2 tsp Coconut flour (sifted)
2 TBSP Coconut oil, melted

1)     In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, blend all ingredients except coconut oil until fully combined.
2)     With mixer on low, slowly add in coconut oil.  Blend well and there are no lumps.
3)     If frosting is a bit too soft, refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Paleo Sugar Cookies - The Healthy Gluten Free Life

Paleo “Sugar” Cookies
Grain Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free*, Soy Free, Cane Sugar Free
Dry Ingredients:
1 C Almond flour
¼ C Coconut flour
2 TBSP Arrowroot starch
½ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
(~Option – for chocolate sugar cookies, add in 2 TBSP organic unsweetened cocoa powder~)
Wet ingredients:
1 egg (*for an egg free option, you can use 1 TBSP flax meal mixed with 3 TBSP hot water)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp pure almond extract
1/3 C pure maple syrup
2 TBSP coconut oil, melted
1)     Preheat oven to 350°.
2)     In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
3)     Add wet ingredients to the dry, except for the coconut oil, and blend with a hand
mixer.
4)     With mixer on low, slowly add coconut oil to the bowl and mix well.
5)     For a soft cookie, you can scoop and bake now for 11-13 minutes
6)     For a crispier cookie, roll the dough in plastic wrap into a log.  Place in the freezer
for 2 hours (or more, until very firm).  Remove and slice into ¼” slices.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake 13-15 minutes.
7)     For cutouts, shape dough into a disc and refrigerate for 3 hours (or more).  The longer you keep them in the fridge, the easier they are to work with.
8)     Using a fine dusting of arrowroot powder to prevent sticking, dust two sheets of parchment paper and the dough.  Roll dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/4″ thickness.
9)     Remove top piece of parchment and cut out cookies with cookie cutters. *Tip* – dip your cookie cutters in some arrowroot or cocoa powder (for chocolate cookies) to keep them from sticking to the dough.  Remove excess dough from around cutout shapes.  *Tip* -  If your dough is still soft and not easy to peel off the parchment, knead a small amount of arrowroot starch (or cocoa powder for the chocolate cookies) into the dough until it’s a little less sticky, then re-roll.
10)    Place bottom sheet of parchment with cookie shapes (no scraping cookies and transferring to another sheet!) onto a baking sheet and bake 13-15 minutes or until edges are browned and center is firm to the touch.
11)    Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Honey Graham Cracker Pie Crust - Against All Grain

Ingredients (fills a 9 inch pie pan)
1/4 cup almond flour

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until combined.

Using your fingers, press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie or tart pan.

Baking Times – 350 degrees

Bake for 15 minutes for a pie pan (7 minutes for a tart) if you will not be baking it any further after adding your filling. Cool completely, then add filling.
If your filling requires baking, bake the crust for 5-7 minutes until it’s a very light golden color. Freeze the crust for 30 minutes, then add filling and return to the oven. You may also need to cover the edges as almond flour burns easily.

Chocolate Pudding Pie - Against All Grain

Ingredients (yields 1 9-inch pie or tart)

1 recipe for Grain-Free Graham Cracker Pie Crust
Pudding
2½ cups coconut milk (Natural Value brand is guar-gum free)
4 egg yolks
¾ cup maple syrup or honey
¼ teaspoon salt
3¼ teaspoons unflavored gelatin (or 2-1/2 tablespoons agar-agar flakes)
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped (I love Scharffen Berger’s soy/dairy free bar)
1 cup whipped cream (either from 1 can of coconut milk, or from real dairy cream)

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix your crust ingredients and press the dough into a 9-inch pie pan or a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Bake your crust for 12 minutes, until it is golden around the ridge.
Let the crust cool completely while you prepare your pudding. To save time, you can make the crust the day before and keep it wrapped tightly until you’re ready to use it.
Soften the gelatin by placing it in a small bowl with the vanilla extract.
Warm the coconut milk over medium-high heat for 6-7 minutes, being careful not to let it boil.
Whisk the egg yolks, maple syrup, and salt in a small bowl.
Slowly pour the hot coconut milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously to temper the eggs. Pour the entire liquid mixture back into the pan, and continue cooking over medium-high heat for 6-8 minutes while stirring constantly. You don’t want this mixture to boil and it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Pour the softened gelatin and vanilla into the pan and whisk vigorously and until the gelatin is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour the mixture into a glass bowl.
If you are using agar-agar, it will take longer for it to dissolve, probably about 5 minutes. If you notice a few small lumps, pass it through a mesh strainer prior to pouring it into the bowl.
Stir in the chopped chocolate until it is incorporated and smooth, then let the bowl cool for 10 minutes.
Pour the pudding into the pie crust, and cover with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the pudding.
Put the pie in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours until the pudding has set.
Top with fresh whipped cream or coconut whipped cream and dark chocolate curls or shavings for decoration.
Enjoy!
*I used raw dairy cream for the pictures with the tart, and the one in the pie dish is coconut whipped cream. Both taste equally as delicious, but you’ll get a better piping out of the real cream.

Vanilla Rosemary Roasted Carrots - The Mannabe Chef



Vanilla Rosemary Carrots Roasted
Cook time: 50-60 minutes
Ingredients(Makes about 4-6 servings):
    1lb carrots
    3 Tablespoons oil
    1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
    1/4 teaspoon salt
Method:
    Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
    Peel, trim, and wash the carrots.
    In a large tray, toss the carrots together with the olive oil, vanilla extract, salt and rosemary until they’re covered.
    Lay the carrots out in a single layer on a baking tray.
    Roast for 50-60 minutes until the carrots are fork-tender and serve hot.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas



Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas  1 yellow onion, sliced
3 sweet peppers, sliced
1 ½ pounds boneless chicken breast or thighs
1/4 to ½ cup chicken broth, depending on preference (leave this out if you prefer a drier fajita filling)
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cumin
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
Squirt of lime juice
Lettuce for wrapping
Fajita fixings

Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Give a nice quirt of lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 4-8 hours (or on High for 4 hours) or until meat is shreddable. When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve meat mixture with slotted spoon on lettuce with your choice of fixings.
NOTE: You can forgo the salt, cumin, and chili powder and instead use