Banana Paleo Pancakes

Zamani, my Godson enjoying his Paleo pancake.  All that is left is one little piece on the tray and a piece of strawberry. 

I am trying to get back to my cooking after a two week trip to El Salvador and then dealing with the death of my mother.  It has been a difficult past few weeks.  Part of coping with the loss of my mom is focusing again on my health and self care.  Also I feel good knowing I am following her legacy of cooking good food for my family.  I have been feeling so down that I didn't want to do my usual exercise and I haven't been cooking.  So, with the determination to get myself back on track, I have decided to start with breakfast foods.  I also haven't been able to get back to cooking because I have been caring for my dad and just haven't been in my own home to plan meals, etc.

So anyway, these are pancakes I made for my dad.  He loves his "sweet bread" in the morning, so I'm trying different alternatives.

Ingredients:
2 bananas
3 eggs
1/4 cup almond flour (I added a bit more - check for yourself the consistency you want.  I wanted a bit of a thicker consistency because this consistency is almost crepe like).
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 TBS raw honey
1/2 TBS vanilla
1 TBS coconut oil

Directions:
1.  Add all ingredients to the blender and blend on high until smooth.
2. Add a bit of the coconut oil to the skillet.
3. Pour batter onto the skillet.   Use about 1/4 cup for each pancake.
4.  Cook for 2-3 minutes.  You have to watch these carefully.  They burn easily - keep the heat on low or medium.

If you care about calories, this is a great recipe.  This recipe is only 2 weight watchers points per pancake.  If you don't care about calories - no problem; this is still a great tasting pancake.

Dad's Peanut Butter Cookies

Whenever I take care of my dad, I try to have a set of cookies, pancakes, or something sweet and bread like that he can have with his coffee.  His routine involves coffee and sweet bread in the morning.  However, he is diabetic and has other health conditions that make a grain based diet very unhealthy for him. So, in order for him to feel like he still gets his "panesito" I try to have a substitute for him.

The second challenge is not being in my own home where I have access to all of my ingredients.  So, I try to come up with things that use what he has at home.  I supply the almond flour and at my parents' home, there almost always is peanut butter, eggs, sea salt, baking soda, vanilla, and agave.  So "Whala!" I have the ingredients for these peanut butter cookies.  This recipe is adapted from Elena's pantry.  The recipe she has for peanut butter cookies, I find too crumbly.  My dad has arthritis and he needs a cookie that is a bit firmer so that he can hold it and it won't fall apart.  My version of this recipe holds together very well.  Here it is:

Note: This recipe is not very sweet - it just has a hint of sweet.  If you want it a bit sweeter, I think it would be okay to add another TBS of agave.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter or sunflower butter
1/4 cup agave or honey
2 TBS palm shortening or butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg (optional) * This is what I add so that the cookie holds together better and is firmer for my dad to hold.  If you want a vegan recipe you can eliminate the egg and it works, but the cookie is more delicate.

1.  In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients
2.  In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients using a hand mixer (I did this by hand as well and it worked fine).
3.  Blend dry ingredients into wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.
4. Scoop about 1 TBS of dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
5. Use a fork to flatten the dough and make a criss cross pattern.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-12 minutes.

Almond and Coconut Flour Paleo Pancakes

This was my first venture back into cooking after my mom's death.  It felt so good to cook again.  This was a great recipe.  It worked well, the consistency was good, and the pancakes were great.  This is from the book Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry.  She doesn't feature this one on her website, only in her cookbook.  Given the ingredients here, of course, I made these at  home at not at my dad's.  It was the one morning after I decided to come home and spend the night at my own house.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup flax meal
2 TBS coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
5 large eggs
1/4 cup Spectrum all vegetable shortening
1 TBS honey
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
2 TBS coconut oil

Directions:
1. In a food processor, pulse together the almond flour, flax meal, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add the eggs, shortening, honey, and vinegar and pulse until thoroughly combined.
3. Heat 2 tsp of the coconut oil in the skillet over medium heat.
4. Scoop a heaping TBS of batter onto the willet for each pancake.
5.  This step should be incredibly obvious, but I will say it anyway: Cook until small bubbles form on the top of each pancake.  Flip the pancake and cook until lightly browned on the other side.

Apricot Muffins

Here is another one of our favorite muffin recipes.  Atzin loves these and loves to eat them before or after his workout.

Source: Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dried apricot halves
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/8 tsp vanilla stevia

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Line 8 muffin cups
3. In a food processor, pluse the apricots until well chopped. 
4. Pulse in coconut flour, baking soda, and salt
5. Pulse in eggs, coconut oil, and stevia until thoroughly combined.
6. School 1/4 cup into each muffin cup.
7. Bake for 15-25 minutes.  Insert a toothpick to make sure they are ready. 

I also took these on my road trip.  

Gingery Chicken and Vegetables

This is another one of my favorites.  It is really easy and so good.  As you see here, I put this on kelp noodles.  However, we usually eat it with no noodles.

Atzin, my son, jokes and says "Mom this is not chicken with vegetables, this is VEGETABLES with chicken!"  We finally compromised on the amount of chicken versus vegetables and decided that it would be called Chicken AND Vegetables.  Not Chicken WITH Vegetables.

As you can see here, I had prepared all the ingredients in the morning so that all I had to do in the evening was sautee it.  We have had really busy weeks because Atzin has had baseball every day and I have had long days every day.  So cooking in the evening seemed really difficult.  This day, I prepared everything in the morning.  That way, it is quick and easy to prepare the meal when you are tired and hungry.

Source: Paleo Diet

Ingredients:
2 TBS olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup red onion
1 tsp ginger root
1-2 lbs grilled chicken breast
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 bell pepper

Directions
1.  Sautee the garlic and onion in the olive oil.
2. Add the additional ingredients and simmer until the veggies are tender and the chicken is cooked.


You see in this picture, that I added spinach this time as well.  You can certainly vary the veggies, but I really like the celery, carrots, bell pepper combination with the ginger.

Paleo Donuts

I have been meaning to share this recipe.  I LOVE my donut maker thanks to my sister Nancy, who found it and bought it for me at the Goodwill store.

Donuts are so easy to make - they take 15 minutes and these donuts are protein packed and low on sugar.  They are just soooo good and filling for a healthy breakfast.

I took these on the college road trip and the boys just devoured them.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
2 TBS honey
1/4 cup of coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Pour into the donut pan.

See how easy!!

For the topping:
1/2 banana
4 oz unsweetened almond milk
unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Mash the banana
2. Add the almond milk
3. Spread the banana/almond mixture on the donuts
4. Sprinkle the shredded coconut on top

These donuts have a really good, coconutty taste.

Grain Free Chorizo Enchiladas

You know you grew up in a grain free/gluten free family when....

My son asked me this evening as we were eating our enchiladas wrapped in cabbage, "What are Enchiladas usually wrapped in?"  "Tortillas," I said.

Well, while we have not eaten traditional Enchiladas in our home during my son's formative years of development because I don't eat corn or wheat, I was glad to begin to explore some alternatives.  Mexican inspired grain free or Paleo meals have been on the agenda this week.  I was recovering from a bad flu and really wanted to get back to my grain free eating.  The previous week had been very busy and I was eating gluten free as usual, but I eating gluten free granola, gluten free bread, rice, lentils, etc... for ease, I was eating already prepared foods (Enjoy Life Cookies) rather than making my own grain free goodies.  So, I was convinced that getting healthy and recovering from this flu not only meant rest, but getting back to my more typical diet of NO or VERY MINIMAL grains.

So here is tonights recipe for the Chorizo Enchiladas. I had Chorizo in the fridge because Atzin loves the freshly made Chorizo at Pete's.  However, you can substitute anything you like for the Chorizo, like ground bison, beef, turkey, etc.  You would just have to season the meat.

Ingredients:
Approximately 10 cabbage leaves
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup coconut milk
2 jalapeño peppers, stems removed, chopped
sea salt to taste
pepper to taste
12-16 oz chorizo
1 cup fresh cilantro
1 cup cauliflower, riced
grass-fed white cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
salsa (optional)
avocados, sliced (optional)
limes (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Gently peel the leaves off of the head of cabbage making sure they don't tear. Immerse the cabbage leaves into the pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Using tongs, remove the leaves and set on a paper towel to dry.

3. Prepare the enchilada sauce.  Add the chicken broth to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat on the small saucepan and mix in the coconut milk and chopped jalapeños.  Stir in the sea salt and black pepper and let simmer for 3-6 minutes.
4. Brown the chorizo in a small frying pan. Remove the excess fat.
5. Rice the cauliflower in a food processor.  To "rice" the cauliflower you can use your shredding attachment as I did in this case, or just put the cauliflower in the food processor using the regular blade. This second way, it will look more the small rice and the first method will make it look more like long grain rice.

This is the riced cauliflower using the food processor. 

5. Mix the chorizo, cilantro and cauliflower rice in a mixing bowl.

6. Pour half the enchilada sauce into a large baking dish.
7. Spoon 1-2 TBS of the chorizo mixture into each cabbage leaf, roll up and add to baking dish. Add remaining chorizo mixture to the dish between the cabbage enchiladas.

8. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top of each enchilada.
9. Top with shredded cheese if you eat dairy.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
11. Serve with the sliced avocado, salsa, fresh cilantro, and lime wedges.

Enjoy!!

An easy variation to make it vegetarian or vegan would be to substitute the chorizo with the soyrizo if you eat soy and substitute the chicken broth for vegetable broth.