Saturday, October 13, 2012
Pumpkin, Bacon & Chive Coconut Flour Biscuits
Since I'm on a pumpkin and bacon kick, this recipe was perfect! I stole it from one of my favorite bloggers The Urban Poser. If you haven't checked out her page yet, you should. Everything I've made from her is amazing! These were incredible and fit every single one of my food restrictions. I was very pleased!
Enjoy~
Pumpkin, Bacon & Chive Coconut Flour Biscuits
(Paleo, Nut/Gluten/Grain/Dairy Free)
Ingredients:
1/2 cups coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
A scant less then 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons roasted or canned pumpkin puree, room temp(or butternut squash)
3 large eggs* (best at room temp or the coconut oil will solidify)
1/4 cup green onions chopped or thinly sliced
1/4 cup shallots or onion minced
3-4 strips of bacon
*I use ground flaxseeds in place of eggs (1 tbsp flax:1/4 c water). If you can eat eggs, use eggs!
Optional Dairy: 1/8-1/4 cup shredded raw cheese (obviously NOT dairy free but tasty if you can do cheeses)
Baking with farms eggs? Remember pastured farm eggs are not regulated by size. For this recipe you need about 5 ounces of egg out of shell (by weight not fluid ounces) or about 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon beaten eggs (by measurement). For more on "no fail" baking with farm eggs click HERE
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment.
Using kitchen shears cut the bacon into to tiny pieces. Preheat a skillet over medium heat (I use cast iron), add the bacon and begin to cook. As the bacon begins to release the fat, add the minced shallots. Continue to cook the mixture till it begins to brown nicely and caramelize a bit. This will take 5-7 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
Combine coconut flour (scoop & sweep method, not packed), baking soda and salt.
Add the coconut oil and beat till smooth. Note: This helps keep the coconut oil from hardening into little pieces later if your eggs/pumpkin happen to be cold. For best results though, let them come to room temp first. Try sticking the shelled eggs in a glass of hot water for about 3 minutes to speed up the process.
In a separate bowl combine the apple cider vinegar, pumpkin and eggs. Beat till smooth
Add the flour mixture, bacon & shallots mixture, chives and cheese (optional) to the liquid ingredients. Mix all the ingredients until the batter becomes thick and well combined. If your eggs and/or pumpkin were cold the dough will be quite thick. This is fine.
Drop mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Use a heaping 1/8 of a cup per biscuit. Smooth and shape slightly if needed or if you're just obsessive like me. They be nice and tall not flat. Makes 8-10 biscuits.
Bake for about 15-18 min or until slightly golden. Times will vary from oven to oven and the thickness of the biscuit. Do not over bake or they can become dry.
Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before moving transferring from the pan. I fine these best eaten the same day that I make them..
Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash
Yes, I said BACON! Real, greasy, crunchy, delicious bacon. Contrary to popular belief cholesterol in your diet does not lead to high cholesterol or heart disease in the body. Matter of fact it's the high fructose corn syrup, sugary coffee creamers, refined carbohydrates, and the like that cause excess fat storage and this can cause plaque build up in your arteries, which THEN can cause heart disease. Do not read this and think you can eat bacon for every meal or every morning for breakfast as it is still high calorically and if eaten out of proportion with other healthy foods in your diet it will still cause weight gain and unnecessary fat storage.
We live in a fat phobic country and unfortunately for us this means the food industry has cut the fat only to replace it with trans fats and high sugar substitutes. When the original lipid-hypothesis first came out (1950's I believe) it was naturally believed that cholesterol from eggs, butter, and animal fats would cause high cholesterol and thus would cause heart disease. So these fats were "banned" in the media marketing of health foods and replaced with "low-fat" foods. Evidence from recent studies have shown that heart disease has increased since Americans have been on the "low-fat" diet. Meaning sugar (refined carbohydrates) has been the culprit all along...not fat!
Let's get the facts straight here...first of all there are 4.5g of fat (saturated) fat in 1 slice of bacon. But if you were to cook 1 slice of bacon, pull it out of the grease that has cooked off of it, and dab it with a paper towel, you have at least half of that fat swishing around in the pan. So you are not really eating 4.5g per slice unless you drink the grease. Second, animal fat or we could call it lard, is what our ancestors survived on. They didn't pick out the fatty parts and throw it out, they ate the whole animal and vegetables...period. Third, saturated fats are not the enemy. We need saturated fats to produce cholesterol, which is the base building block for every hormone in the body. In fact, saturated fats are responsible for healthy brain function, digestive function, and sex hormone regulation. Saturated fats from butter and coconut oil have medicinal properties, as well as anti-bacterial properties that we use to help heal and treat digestive dysfunction. Fourth, our diets are about balance, and fat needs to be included in that balance. Healthy fats include animal fats, IN MODERATION! Just like we can not survive solely on protein or carnohydrates without consequences, we can not live solely on fat either. You should aim to put this fat in balance with your vegetable and protein intake :)
The recipe below includes 4 slices of bacon (~16g fat) and was split between 3 people. That's about 5g of saturated animal fat per person, minus the grease leftover in the pan and you could bring that down to 3g per person. That is totally acceptable!
Enjoy~
Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash
4 slices of all natural, preservative-free bacon, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch of rainbow chard, washed de-stemmed and chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp coconut oil
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste
Slice you bacon into small cuts, either on the cutting board or with scissors. Sautee over medium heat in a sauce pan (you don't need to grease the pan when you're making bacon). While that's cooking, chop your onion, wash your chard, and peel and chop your sweet potato.
Make sure your tending to your bacon so it cooks evenly. Add the onion. Let that cook together for 5 minutes then remove the contents from the pan, trying to leave the grease in the pan, and put into a mixing bowl and set aside.
Pour the bacon grease into a glass jar, as you don't want this going down your drain! You can qipe out the remaining grease with a paper towel.
Now add coconut oil, sweet potatoes, thyme and cinnamon to cook over medium heat. They will take 10-15 min or so, then add in the chard at the end mix for a minute until chard is a little wilted. Combine sweet potato mixture with the bacon and onions...Mix all ingredients together.
We served for breakfast and it was incredible! This made very generous servings for three people, but could have easily fed 4 people.
We live in a fat phobic country and unfortunately for us this means the food industry has cut the fat only to replace it with trans fats and high sugar substitutes. When the original lipid-hypothesis first came out (1950's I believe) it was naturally believed that cholesterol from eggs, butter, and animal fats would cause high cholesterol and thus would cause heart disease. So these fats were "banned" in the media marketing of health foods and replaced with "low-fat" foods. Evidence from recent studies have shown that heart disease has increased since Americans have been on the "low-fat" diet. Meaning sugar (refined carbohydrates) has been the culprit all along...not fat!
Let's get the facts straight here...first of all there are 4.5g of fat (saturated) fat in 1 slice of bacon. But if you were to cook 1 slice of bacon, pull it out of the grease that has cooked off of it, and dab it with a paper towel, you have at least half of that fat swishing around in the pan. So you are not really eating 4.5g per slice unless you drink the grease. Second, animal fat or we could call it lard, is what our ancestors survived on. They didn't pick out the fatty parts and throw it out, they ate the whole animal and vegetables...period. Third, saturated fats are not the enemy. We need saturated fats to produce cholesterol, which is the base building block for every hormone in the body. In fact, saturated fats are responsible for healthy brain function, digestive function, and sex hormone regulation. Saturated fats from butter and coconut oil have medicinal properties, as well as anti-bacterial properties that we use to help heal and treat digestive dysfunction. Fourth, our diets are about balance, and fat needs to be included in that balance. Healthy fats include animal fats, IN MODERATION! Just like we can not survive solely on protein or carnohydrates without consequences, we can not live solely on fat either. You should aim to put this fat in balance with your vegetable and protein intake :)
The recipe below includes 4 slices of bacon (~16g fat) and was split between 3 people. That's about 5g of saturated animal fat per person, minus the grease leftover in the pan and you could bring that down to 3g per person. That is totally acceptable!
Enjoy~
Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch of rainbow chard, washed de-stemmed and chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp coconut oil
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste
Slice you bacon into small cuts, either on the cutting board or with scissors. Sautee over medium heat in a sauce pan (you don't need to grease the pan when you're making bacon). While that's cooking, chop your onion, wash your chard, and peel and chop your sweet potato.
Make sure your tending to your bacon so it cooks evenly. Add the onion. Let that cook together for 5 minutes then remove the contents from the pan, trying to leave the grease in the pan, and put into a mixing bowl and set aside.
Pour the bacon grease into a glass jar, as you don't want this going down your drain! You can qipe out the remaining grease with a paper towel.
Now add coconut oil, sweet potatoes, thyme and cinnamon to cook over medium heat. They will take 10-15 min or so, then add in the chard at the end mix for a minute until chard is a little wilted. Combine sweet potato mixture with the bacon and onions...Mix all ingredients together.
We served for breakfast and it was incredible! This made very generous servings for three people, but could have easily fed 4 people.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Pumpkin (non) Bread Pudding
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and lightly grease a 9-inch glass pie plate and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Pumpkin pie is probably Robs favorite dessert ever! So you can imagine my excitement when I saw baby pumpkins among the other winter squashes at vitamin cottage (our shopping haven of choice). I've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, and was totally pumped to give it a shot considering there would be no gluten, no eggs, no cream, and no butter in my recipe, but bring it on right?! My mistake in making a pumpkin pie was not adding enough pumpkin! Instead of a gooey pie, I got more of a cakey, bread pudding-ish delightful sweet treat. It was still amazing, so either way...
You will need a food processor or good blender will do.
First things first, get your flaxseed gellin'...once it's gelled you can add it to the food processor with everything else. If you don't let the ground flax soak up the water it doesn't work and you might as well not use it.
1 tablespoon ground Flaxseed, 1/4 c water, let gel (this is your egg substitute, if you eat eggs use 2 eggs)
In a food processor add:
1/2 small baking pumpkin, which is about 1 cup (for pumpkin pie you need to use the whole pumpkin)
1 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk (or vanilla unsweetened almond milk)
2 teaspoons gf vanilla
2 tablespoons light olive oil
3/4 cup organic light brown sugar (when i don't have brown sugar I used 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tbsp molasses)
1/2a cup brown Rice flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot starch (you can do tapioca or potato srtarch as well)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cover and process until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
To make the crust, you'll need that processor again. I have two sizes, but you may have to clean and re-use, work it out :)
1 cup flaked unsweetened organic coconut
1 cup walnuts pieces
1/4 c brown rice flour
1/4 c almond flour
1/4 c honey
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp molasses
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons coconut oil
So your oven is preheated to 350 right?
Dump the crumbs into the cake pan and spread them evenly. Using your fingers gently press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides- about 2/3 of the way up.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 7 minutes- to set.
Pour the prepared pie mixture in the pan and smooth evenly. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until done. The pie should be firm- but still give a little when lightly touched.
Cool the pie on a wire rack completely. It's delicious warm, served with a little scoop of coconut ice cream.
Pumpkin pie is probably Robs favorite dessert ever! So you can imagine my excitement when I saw baby pumpkins among the other winter squashes at vitamin cottage (our shopping haven of choice). I've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, and was totally pumped to give it a shot considering there would be no gluten, no eggs, no cream, and no butter in my recipe, but bring it on right?! My mistake in making a pumpkin pie was not adding enough pumpkin! Instead of a gooey pie, I got more of a cakey, bread pudding-ish delightful sweet treat. It was still amazing, so either way...
You will need a food processor or good blender will do.
First things first, get your flaxseed gellin'...once it's gelled you can add it to the food processor with everything else. If you don't let the ground flax soak up the water it doesn't work and you might as well not use it.
1 tablespoon ground Flaxseed, 1/4 c water, let gel (this is your egg substitute, if you eat eggs use 2 eggs)
In a food processor add:
1/2 small baking pumpkin, which is about 1 cup (for pumpkin pie you need to use the whole pumpkin)
1 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk (or vanilla unsweetened almond milk)
2 teaspoons gf vanilla
2 tablespoons light olive oil
3/4 cup organic light brown sugar (when i don't have brown sugar I used 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tbsp molasses)
1/2a cup brown Rice flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot starch (you can do tapioca or potato srtarch as well)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cover and process until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
To make the crust, you'll need that processor again. I have two sizes, but you may have to clean and re-use, work it out :)
1 cup flaked unsweetened organic coconut
1 cup walnuts pieces
1/4 c brown rice flour
1/4 c almond flour
1/4 c honey
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp molasses
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons coconut oil
So your oven is preheated to 350 right?
Dump the crumbs into the cake pan and spread them evenly. Using your fingers gently press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides- about 2/3 of the way up.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 7 minutes- to set.
Pour the prepared pie mixture in the pan and smooth evenly. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until done. The pie should be firm- but still give a little when lightly touched.
Cool the pie on a wire rack completely. It's delicious warm, served with a little scoop of coconut ice cream.
Blueberry Kale
It is hard to blog with a baby in one hand! It's hard to do a lot of things with a baby in one hand, everything takes twice as long! So I apologize for being short with my posts, but I have very little windows of time...
I have stayed away from kale and broccoli since I've been breastfeeding, it gives babies gas. But since these are my favorite veggies I had to try a little kale to see if Tessa could handle it. This side dish is awesome, and if you don't like kale, get over it, you will like this recipe!
Blueberry Kale
1 bunch green kale, washed and destemmed
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c blueberries (i used frozen, fresh will work)
In a large sauce pan sautee onions and blueberries in coconut oil for a few minutes before starting to add your kale. Kale will break down (i.e. shrink) a lot, so i add it in waves, cooking on low-med heat until all the kale is wilted.
Enjoy by itself, mixed in with a spinach salad, or side dish with dinner~
I have stayed away from kale and broccoli since I've been breastfeeding, it gives babies gas. But since these are my favorite veggies I had to try a little kale to see if Tessa could handle it. This side dish is awesome, and if you don't like kale, get over it, you will like this recipe!
Blueberry Kale
1 bunch green kale, washed and destemmed
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c blueberries (i used frozen, fresh will work)
In a large sauce pan sautee onions and blueberries in coconut oil for a few minutes before starting to add your kale. Kale will break down (i.e. shrink) a lot, so i add it in waves, cooking on low-med heat until all the kale is wilted.
Enjoy by itself, mixed in with a spinach salad, or side dish with dinner~
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