Primal/Paleo Sandwich Bread – Grain free!

So bread is something I don’t miss too much – sandwiches, on the other hand, I missed.  This bread tastes nutty, and is more the consistency of a dense sweet bread, but it works well for sandwich making.  My 2 year old eats peanut butter and jelly on this bread and my husband likes grilled cheese or egg-in-a-hole using this bread.

Sandwich Bread

3 cups of almond flour

4 T of coconut flour

1/2 cup of flaxseed meal

1/2 t of salt

3 t of baking soda

10 eggs (wowza, I know)

1/2 cup of coconut oil

4 T of honey

2 T of apple cider vinegar

 

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl (almond flour, coconut flour, flaxseed meal, salt, and baking soda).  Add the wet ingredients (eggs, coconut oil, honey, & cider) to the dry and mix well with a hand mixer, scraping the sides to combine everything.

Pour the batter into a standard loaf pan (9×5).  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour – check the middle at that point to make sure it’s cooked through.  Cook longer if necessary.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Then cook completely on a cookie rack.

Slice and enjoy!

 

 

Roasted Broccoli

This is a simple recipe for a veggie side to all the meat we eat as low-carb people.  I tend to shy away from broccoli as I don’t like it all that much, but this recipe actually made me go for seconds.  If you’ve got a picky eater (kid or husband!) maybe this recipe will help 🙂

Roasted Broccoli

2-3 broccoli crowns, chopped into small florets

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

4-5 Garlic Cloves, minced

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Line your baking pan with tin foil and grease it.  Put your broccoli on your baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, & garlic.  Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the broccoli is a crispy-tender and the tops of the broccoli florets are starting to brown a bit.

After you take out of the oven, place broccoli on paper towel and drain the excess oil off.  Put in a serving dish and enjoy!

Homemade Salsa

I like to make my own salsa – it tastes so much fresher and more like something you’d find at a Mexican restaurant.  The store bought brands tend to taste too tomato saucy for my taste.  So here’s my recipe (adapted from Pioneer Woman’s original recipe).

Homemade Salsa

1 can of whole tomatoes

1 can of Rotel tomatoes (I use MILD) *drained of all liquid*

1/4 yellow onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp coconut sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 – 1 tsp lime juice (depending on your preference)

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel (drained), onion, garlic, coconut sugar, salt, cumin, & lime juice in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.

Enjoy!

Chinese Fried “Rice”

I’m a sucker for good Chinese food.  I love it all – egg rolls, soups, fried, steamed.  You name it, I’ll eat it.  Since starting to eat primal/low carb, I’ve not been able to get take out from my favorite Chinese hole-in-the-wall, which is a bummer.  But, again, cauliflower rice has come to my rescue!  This is a yummy low-carb version of Chinese fried rice AND you will be eating your veggies!

Chinese Fried Rice

1/2 head of cauliflower, riced

1/2 bag of frozen peas & carrots, thawed & rinsed

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

2 eggs, whisked

soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sriracha sauce

Olive oil

In a strainer, rinse and thaw out the peas and carrots.  Rice the cauliflower in a food processor. Finely chop the onion and put the onion in a skillet over medium/high heat with the olive oil – saute until the translucent (about 5 minutes).

Add peas and carrots and cook until water evaporates, about 5 minutes (sometimes I drain off the water in the middle of the cooking time to help things along).

Add 2 scrambled eggs and stir while the eggs cook fully.  Add the cauliflower rice and several good dashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, & sriracha sauce.  Taste and adjust accordingly.  I usually use more soy sauce than anything and go light on the sriracha sauce.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes.

Serve with your favorite Chinese meat (pictured is my Orange Chicken, which I’ll post the recipe for that later) and enjoy!

Cheddar Cauliflower Muffins

 

I know it’s been awhile since I posted a new recipe.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me – I’m a Disney Travel Agent (home-based) and there was a great discount released recently, so all my extra time has been helping my clients book & plan their trips.

But I’m back to a more normal life and have some time to do primal cooking again!

These biscuits are very good – they kind of remind me of potato/hashbrown cakes and go very nicely with a meat and veggie plate.

Cheddar Cauliflower Biscuits

Makes 12 muffins

Recipe Ingredients:

2 cups finely riced, raw cauliflower
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbl melted butter
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 Tbl dried onion flakes (I use onion powder sometimes instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup coconut flour

Combine the cauliflower, eggs, & melted butter in a medium bowl.  Add the grated cheese and mix well.  Stir in the onion flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, baking powder and coconut flour until thoroughly combined.  Divide the batter evenly between 12 greased muffin cups.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree (F) oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove and serve warm or cold.

 

Stuffed Mushrooms

 

I first had these amazing stuffed mushrooms last month and was fortunate enough to get the recipe.  They are so very good!  You’ve gotta love cheese to like these, and a glass of wine pairs perfectly with them.

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 package of garden salad mushrooms (I bought the bigger ones for stuffing)

1/4 stick of butter

garlic salt

Pop the stems out of the mushrooms.  Then peel the outside layer of the mushroom off (this is a very important step!  It makes the mushroom much more tender).  Melt the butter, and mix in a healthy dash of garlic salt.  Dip the mushroom caps into the butter, place on a tray, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  After you take the mushroom caps out of the oven, pat the excess butter off the caps, and place back onto the tray.

1/2 package of Boursin Cheese (I bought the garlic & herb variety)

3 – 4 oz of cream cheese

Cream the cheeses together using a hand mixer.  Spoon into the mushroom caps and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

Cinnamon Bread

 

It’s been awhile since my last recipe – our family came down with the stomach virus going around.  Not the nice, little 24 hour bug, but the 6-10 day bug that knocks you off your feet until you are promising never to eat again.  So it’s taken me awhile to want to think about food and post a new recipe.

But this recipe, Cinnamon Bread, is a good one!  I would have totally added raisins to it to make it even more yummy, but my husband won’t eat raisins.  But you can add them and tell me how amazing it was.  In the future, I plan to save a loaf of this and make french toast out of it.  I’ll bet that will be wonderful.

Cinnamon Bread

1/2 cup of butter, melted

1/4 cup of honey

5 eggs

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/3 cup of coconut flour

1/4 cup of almond flour

If using, 1/2 cup of raisins

Preheat the oven to 325.

Melt the butter and then add honey and stir until combined.  In another medium bowl, combine eggs & vanilla.  Add the butter/honey and blend well.

Mix together the coconut flour, almond flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.  Add to your wet mixture and blend well (I used a hand mixer).

Fold in your raisins, if using.

Grease 2 small loaf pans and split the batter between the 2 pans.  Bake the loaves for about 25-30 minutes, or until they are nice and golden brown on top.  Remove from oven, cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, and the take the bread out and cool on a wire rack until completely cooled off.

Enjoy with lots of butter!!

Almond Flour Blueberry Muffins (Primal)

These muffins aren’t as good as my banana muffins (found here) but they are still very tasty!  There’s just something about a blueberry muffin for breakfast – yum.

Blueberry Muffins

2 cups of almond flour

1 tsp of baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup of softened butter

4 T of honey

1 generous teaspoon of vanilla

3 T of milk

1 cup of mini-blueberries (if you can find them.  I couldn’t so I used big ones)

 

Preheat the oven to 350.  Line a 12 muffin tin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl beat together butter, honey, vanilla, and milk.  Add the eggs and beat together.  Add the almond flour and baking powder – beat until combined.  Gently fold in the blueberries.

Fill each muffin tin and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Primal/Grain-free Pumpkin Bread

 

I’ve been searching for a good pumpkin bread recipe without flour and sugar since Thanksgiving and had very little luck.  Some taste like pumpkin bread without the consistency of bread.  Some didn’t taste pumpkin-y at all!  But I’ve finally found the a recipe I can live with.  The consistency is PERFECT!!  The pumpkin flavor is a little more subtle than I would prefer, but I definitely can deal with that.

This makes 1 small loaf pan (5.75in x 3 in) of bread.  You can double, triple, quadruple this for more loaves.

Pumpkin Bread

1 cup of almond flour

1/4 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1 heaping tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice blend

1/2 cup of pumpkin

2 – 3 T of honey (I eyeballed it)

3 eggs

In a bowl, combine almond flour, salt, and baking soda, and spices.  Mix together.

In a separate bowl, add pumpkin, honey, eggs and mix together.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until thoroughly combined.  Scoop batter into your mini-laof pan (which has been greased).

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  Cool in the pan for 10-ish minutes and then on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes.

Serve with lots of butter 🙂

Grain/Gluten Free Banana Muffins

 

This recipe was originally a bread recipe, but I like muffins better.  There’s just something about a lightly toasted muffin with butter slathered all over it for breakfast.

Banana Muffins

3 very ripe bananas

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 tablespoon of honey

1/4 cup of coconut oil (softened)

2 cups of almond flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your muffin pan with paper muffin liners.

Add the bananas, eggs, vanilla, honey and coconut oil in a food processor and pulse until the ingredients are combined.

Add in almond flour, salt and baking soda and pulse a few times.  Mix in nuts.

Spoon batter into the muffin cups, until mostly full.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.