‘Naner Pancakes for One

May 31, 2013 by tgipaleo | 3 Comments

In an attempt to avoid protein powders after workouts, my standard PWO snack is often just 2 hard-boiled eggs and a spotty banana. Buuuuuut that gets old after a while. I’ve tried the egg and banana pancake idea before (well, like once) and it was a disaster…so I kinda gave up. They are a little tricky and I’ve seen different ratios of egg to banana…like one egg to one banana, two to one, one to two, whatever…but the fact that there’s no dry binding agent means that you need to cook them at a pretty low temperature. And low temps mean a longer cooking time. And I’m inpatient.

I decided to give them another go as I started getting sick of bananas and hard-boiled eggs. Don’t ask me why it took so long, but it finally occurred to me to mash them all together and make pancakes out of them. Best part? They’re great cold, too, so I can toss them in a baggie into my cooler and take them to class.

Like I said, they take a little time and love to make, so my preferred method is to make a ton at the beginning of the week and freeze them. They heat up very nicely in the toaster oven and make a good breakfast on the go (which I’m eating way more of since I have early classes). Make sure you use plenty of fat in cooking…these babies stick easily…and besides, fat is good for you, remember? Duh. Plus a lot of coconut oil makes them all crispy around the edges…OMG. SO GOOD.

‘Naner Pancakes

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients

1 Ripe Banana,
2 Whole Eggs
Butter or Coconut Oil, for frying

Instructions

Mash your banana really well.
Beat in the eggs.
Heat some coconut oil over a MEDIUM heat skillet.
By ¼ cup-fulls or so, drop into the hot coconut oil.
Fry for 2-3 mins on each side, flipping CAREFULLY.
Devour.

Apple Banana Berry Paleo Baked ‘French Toast’

December 18, 2012 by tgipaleo | 2 Comments

So, real quick…you have 36 hours to enter my Giveaway! Hop on over to this post, give me a little input (no social media “Like”-ing required!!) and you could be the winner of some awesome stuff from White Lion Baking Co! Do it…you know you want to…

After breakfast on Sunday, Ross took me by the shoulders, looked me square in the eye, and said, “Look, I know you get caught up in making all this new stuff for the blog sometimes…but YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS AGAIN. SOON.”

French toast is a tough nut to crack in the Paleo world. Hell, I still have yet to even see a good gluten-free French toast I’d be willing to have again. There are a ton of recipes out there, sure, but I’m sorry...making a loaf of some kind of Paleo Bread and tossing it in an egg-wash does not make good French toast. French toast is all about the egg-y cream soaking into the bread and the custard-y innards encased by a buttery crispy crust after it’s been fried in a pool of butter. That’s what I crave when I crave French toast. And all too often, Paleo French toast is just a slice of perfectly good banana bread with scrambled egg on top. (I’m guilty of this, too…you can see my stop-gap attempts to quash my cravings here and here).

Is this the perfect solution? Of course not…still working on it, I swear! But when in doubt, make something that satisfies the flavors and sensations of what you’re missing the most. Warm, crisp crust? Check. Ooey-gooey-custard-y filling? Check. Cinnamon-y, vanilla-y, fruit-y flavor? Check, check, check.

INGREDIENTS

6 Apples (I used Golden Delicious)

2 T Coconut Oil

1/2 c Coconut Flour

8 Eggs

1/3 c Full Fat Coconut Milk

4 Mashed Bananas

1 c Raspberries

1 t Baking Soda

1 t Salt

1 T Vanilla

1 T Cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Slice up your apples as small or large as you want them. I cut mine into 1/8th’s. In a skillet, heat the coconut oil and sautee the apples with cinnamon to taste until slightly browned. Set aside.

Combine the cococnut flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs into the mashed bananas and add the coconut milk and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just blended. Fold in the berries.

In a large, greased baking dish (9 x 13), arrange the sauteed apples. Pour the batter over top. Do not stir, just let it settle.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean and the top is golden brown.

Top with additional berries, butter, and maple syrup.

Citrus-Brandy Applesauce

December 2, 2012 by tgipaleo | 8 Comments

It’s officially winter. And Christmas season. You know, with, like, lights and snowmen and the sweet scent of cinnamon and pine everrrrrrrywhere. I love it. Except when the Colorado Springs Festival of Lights parade backs traffic up to the interstate. All I wanted to do last night was go to Phantom and drink copious amounts of wine and chow down on sweet potato fries…only to be blocked by a zillion cars and screaming kids and chicks dressed up like slutty Santa running through the street. I mean, we totally still made it, and I guess the one saving grace of a ginormous Christmas parade is that the bars were completely deserted. So…win?

OK so back to Christmas and smells and applesauce. So you may recall that, way back in July, mad this AH-MAZING apple cobbler. Well, Britney is back in town for my promotion and true to form, we’ve been cooking and eating. A lot. It’s obscene. Know what else is obscene? Our Crossfit Totals, fueled by Overnight Citrus-Brandy Applesauce (and bacon). I mean, look at that face.

Yep, PR’s all around…thank the applesauce. Anyhoo, I decided to do up the apples the other day but make them a little more Christmas-y with lemon and orange and cinnamon and booze. Yay, booze!

Obviously, we did the whole appleSAUCE thing instead of cobbler this time, mostly because overslept and left it to cook a few more hours than I intended, but who the hell cares? My blog, my food. And it was good. But of course, you can do cobbler instead of sauce if you want to, just reduce the cooking time to 4 or 5 hours instead of the, um, 8 or 9 that I left mine.

INGREDIENTS

8 Apples, cored and sliced

1 T Coconut Oil

1/2 c Brandy

3 T zest from a Buddha’s Hand, (or 1 zested lemon and 1 zested orange)

1 t Salt

1 T Vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

Grease the bottom of your crockpot with the coconut oil.

Place all other ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Pour into the crockpot.

Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours for cobbler or 8+ hours for applesauce. Serve topped with raw nuts and coconut.

Raw Paleo Granola

November 15, 2012 by tgipaleo | 1 Comment

It’s so rare that I come up with something that’s Paleo AND Vegan AND Raw AND 21DSD-friendly AND Whole30-approved. Basically that means I can only eat granola from now on.

I went a little camera crazy with this, too. See that bowl? Totally not dishwasher-safe. They need to label these things. But a ruined ingredient dish just became the cutest little cereal bowl ever. See? Optimism.

See the full recipe here!

Bacon Peach Cobbler

September 13, 2012 by tgipaleo | 5 Comments

Soooo…I don’t have much to say about this one. I’ll just show you.

Along with Ross’s special dinner the other night, I decided I had to make dessert, too. And what better dessert than something–ANYTHING–with bacon?

And just an added bonus, this sweet bowl of goodness is Whole30-friendly!

INGREDIENTS

3 lbs Peaches, washed and quartered

3 Thick Slices Bacon

Pinch Salt

Pinch Cinnamon

1 c Nitrate-free Raisins (optional)

1 c Chopped Pecans (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat a pot over medium high heat. Chop the bacon into bits, then brown in a little coconut oil in the pot. Add the salt and cinnamon and cook for a minute longer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the peaches. Stir until well combined and the peaches are nicely coated in cinnamon-y bacon grease. Reduce heat to low, then cover the pot and let simmer for 1 hour. Remove from heat, cool slightly and serve.

Overnight Apple Breakfast Cobbler

July 17, 2012 by tgipaleo | 24 Comments

So the Crossfit Games prrrrrretty much made me feel like a total failure at life. I mean, I could totally deadlift 325# if I wanted to…so maybe this was the motivation I need to get off my ass. I totally would have dominated the hammer event, too, no big deal. You’ll see me in SoCal next year, I swear!!!

In the mean time, I cooked up a storm this weekend. My friend Brittany was in town from DC, so I made my best attempt to lay out a Paleo banquet to accompany our watching the Games and our forays at the Irish Fest. I roasted a whole duck and shoved about three handfuls of diced apples mixed with cinnamon and coconut oil up its ass. Duck Butt Apples are the best. Pretty sure I can die happy now. We didn’t even have anything else for dinner Friday night. Just went after that duck like the zombies went after Rick’s horse in the Walking Dead. I wish I was exaggerating even a little bit.

Speaking of apples, I still had a ton leftover at the end of the weekend. I don’t really eat much fruit anymore and they were starting to get a little soft. Thank you, my dearest husband, for buying a dozen apples like two days before you go back to Boston for two months…ANYWAY. I was pretty desperate to get these apples into something quick–and so Breakfast Cobbler was born. I’ve definitely heard of making fruit cobblers in the slow cooker before, but you know me…FRUIT IS NOT DESSERT. But fruit can be breakfast! And if you leave the crockpot on overnight…instant breakfast!

INGREDIENTS

6 Apples, cored and sliced

1 T Coconut Oil

1/2 c Coconut Milk

1/2 c Shredded Coconut (unsweetened)

1/2 c Raisins (or other dried fruit)

1 T Cinnamon

1 t Salt

1 T Vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

Grease the bottom of your crockpot with the coconut oil.

Place all other ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir until combined. Pour into the crockpot.

Cook on LOW for 6 hours or just overnight. Serve topped with raw nuts and more coconut.

Peach Chutney Fried Chicken

July 11, 2012 by tgipaleo | 9 Comments

So Ross left Sunday (again) for Boston to finish out the summer, but not before we got some quality house hunting done–one step closer to having our own little Colorado Zombie Retreat! Found a couple little places in the mountains with plenty of acreage for a big garden, and one lot that might be big enough to hunt on. Kind’ve a Paleo Geek’s wet dream. No big deal.

Niceness aside, it’s back to little me all by my lonesome for a couple more months…*sigh* I’m getting way too good at saying Goodbye. The irony here is that I have a civilian spouse, which was supposed to mean we’d spend more time together…now that’s just silly.

Know what’s not silly? Like, what’s deadly serious? This chicken. It was Ross’s going away dinner and I think we can both die happy now. Inspired by DDD yet again…are you noticing a trend lately?…except the one on the show was mango chutney on buttermilk fried chicken. Admittedly looked awesome enough to give up my firstborn. Though not awesome enough for me to sacrifice my bowels for a week. Priorities, people.

I re-vamped my go-to fried chicken recipe after I started getting uneasy about cooking with nuts…I’ve been looking back to the archives to find some other dishes that might need a little TLC, too, so stay tuned for some new versions sans baked or fried nuts!

I’d also like to let you know that I did, indeed, make this fried chicken my b*tch. The breading is all arrowroot this time so it’s a smoother texture than my old almond meal blend, and it’s a much more neutral flavor that let the seasoning shine through and soaked the chutney right up and pretty much made a crispity-crunchity-ooey-gooey-peachy explosion in my mouth.

INGREDIENTS

**Chutney**

1 T Coconut Oil

3 Peaches, pitted and diced

1/2 Sweet Onion, diced

1 Garlic Clove, minced

1 T Fresh Grated Ginger

1 T Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 t Curry Powder

**Chicken**

2 lbs Skin-On Chicken (legs, thighs, etc)

3/4 c Arrowroot Powder

3 Eggs

2 t Paprika

2 t Garlic Powder

1 t Salt

1 t Black Pepper

1/4 t Cayenne Pepper

Palm Shortening or Coconut Oil, for frying

INSTRUCTIONS

For the chutney…

Heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic, sauteeing until onions are translucent. Add the ginger and stir for about 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the peaches, vingear, and curry. Stir for about 4-5 minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, add the raisins and simmer for 10 minutes more. Serve hot or cold (can be made ahead of time) on fried chicken.

For the chicken…

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat 1/2 inch of palm shortening or coconut oil over medium-high heat in a deep frying pan.

Beat the eggs in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, combine the arrowroot powder and seasonings.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip in beaten egg, then dredge in arrowroot powder mixture. Place in the hot oil and fry for 1 minute on each side. Remove chicken to a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 minutes more.

Serve with chutney. Enjoy!

Plain ol’ Banana Bread

July 9, 2012 by tgipaleo | 33 Comments

What I love most about Paleo–even more than I love the physical changes I’ve seen in my own body over the last year–is it’s promotion of science and self-experimentation in the nutritional world as a means to advance health and wellness. Maybe it’s the reliance on evolutionary principles or just that so many followers of the Paleo diet and lifestyle are just super nerdy, but it seems like it is constantly being tweaked and refined as we explore more and more of the science behind how food and food culture affects our health.

A couple examples–Vintage Paleo was a relatively high protein, low fat diet. While that’s an awesome approach for some people, several studies in the last decade have shown us that, in fact, higher fat diets not only don’t make us fat–they can be remarkably good for us. Ditto for the extremely low-carb dealio. While benefits of very low-carb diets and intermittent fasting are supported by research and personal experiences, there are some questions now concerning how this approach might affect women…because, well, we’re wired a little differently than men. Rice and potatoes have been welcomed by some back into the Paleo diet (for very active people!) while others have shunned high-fructose fruits and nuts, former Paleo staples.

We have the privilege of living in an age where not only is there a plethora of nutritional research being conducted, but it is more available to us plebians than ever before. There is more scrutiny than ever before, too, and we are better able to recognize which studies and research projects are actually legit (i.e. peer reviewed) and which are just bad science.

Obviously, the best approach is the approach that works best for you. I am a HUGE fan of self-experimentation and by no means have I found my 100% ideal way of living…but I’m closer than ever. I eat more and work out less than at any point in my 25 years on this earth and I look better, perform better, and feel better. I wouldn’t keep doing it otherwise. What I’m getting at is that I honestly believe we have a responsibility to ourselves to keep digging for information, to keep educating ourselves, and to keep asking questions. Some new study comes out saying that red meat gives you brain tumors? That gluten is tearing our intestines apart? Or that all fruit is bad for you? READ IT and make a decision for yourself. Google some of the big words. Read some dissenting and concurring opinions.

OK. So after all that I’m giving you a new recipe for banana bread. No, really, I’m going somewhere with this–if you’ve been reading my blog, you may have come across one of the bajillion times I’ve linked back to my very favorite banana bread recipe. Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly delicious and I love it. However, I’ve begun taking issue with nuts and the excessive use of nut flours and butters in baking. I’m OK with eating nuts occasionally despite the omega-6 and phytic acid content, but since a good deal of buzz started going around about the potentially harmful effects of heat on nuts (i.e. roasting nuts or baking with nut flours and butters), I’ve been doing my homework (check here, here, and here). I’m absolutely guilty of relying heavily on nut-based ingredients at times…like eating my favorite banana bread every day for weeks on end…so I’m giving some of my favorite recipes a makeover. I’m still fine with raw nuts, nut butters, and the use of them in recipes that don’t require high heat (YES! Cookie Dough Brownies are safe!!!!), but the baking and frying business makes me wee bit uncomfortable. It did take some soul searching, but I definitely sleep better at night without cooked nuts. So there.

As you can see, this banana bread is coconut flour-based–an ingredient I’m much more comfortable with and that is honestly much more nutritious than almond meal, anyway. It’s moist and banana-y, lightly sweet (with no added sugars besides the bananas!), and delicious on its own or schmeared in butter. Because we all need a good, go-to recipe for banana bread that won’t oxidize into a trans-fatty mess

INGREDIENTS

1/2 c Coconut Flour

1 t Salt

1 t Baking Soda

2 t Cinnamon

1/2 c Ground Flax

6 Eggs

1 T Vanilla

3 Really Ripe Bananas

INSTRUCTIONS

Mash the bananas and add the eggs and vanilla, whisking together until well combined.

Combine the dry ingredients. Add to the egg/banana/vanilla mixture by spoonfuls, beating until smooth. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Choco-Cherry Upside-Down Banana Bread

June 28, 2012 by tgipaleo | 6 Comments

Say that five times fast…

So Colorado Springs is officially on fire. As I was driving home from the airport on Monday you could see the smoke coming up over the mountain. A little worried. Plus side is that everything smells like BBQ.

And if the fires don’t kill me, this heat just might. OMG I miss central air. We have two window units but they’re not helping much. Mostly because we have horozontal sliding windows and the units don’t have extensions long enough to fit–so I kinda gerry-rigged it with styrofoam. Well, I tried. Home improvement isn’t exactly my forte.

So I baked for you!!

PS…baking in105 degree heat with no AC? Capital S-STUPID. But delicious. Oh, so delicious.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 c Coconut Flour

1 t Salt

1 t Baking Soda

2 t Cinnamon

1/2 c Flax

6 Eggs

3 Mashed Bananas

2 t Vanilla

1 1/2 c Whole Cherries

2 T Cocoa Powder

1 T Coconut Milk

INSTRUCTIONS

Start with the dirty work–pit all your cherries and chop them roughly. Set aside.

Whisk all your dry ingredients–EXCEPT THE COCOA POWDER AND COCONUT MILK–together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the mashed bananas. Add the dry ingredients a bit at a time until well blended.

Spread the cherries out on the bottom of a greased loaf pan. Add 2/3 of the batter.

To the other third of the batter still in the bowl, add the 2 T of cocoa and 1 T of coconut milk. Pour the chocolate batter into the pan and swirl with a knife.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool completely, then CAREFULLY remove the loaf from the pan and serve Cherry-Side-Up. Enjoy!!

**I have now added a new category for my baked goods and other treats. When you see “No Sugar Added,” I have added no extra sugars in the form of honey, palm sugar, or maple syrup. If there is any sweetness in these products, it will be from fruit, sweet potatoes, etc.**

Peach Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake

June 21, 2012 by tgipaleo | 11 Comments

Peaches are here! I very well may have overdone it just a little when I came home from Whole Foods on Friday with two dozen peaches, but I guess that just means I have to get creative. Damn.

So this recipe wasn’t completely my idea. Thanks, Pinterest…again. What can I say? Makes the work day go by faster. Wait, what?

I consider this cake quite the accomplishment–Paleo baking of any kind can be a pretty tedious process. Getting a good texture that’s not too dry or gritty or goopey takes some trial and error. And then there’s the challenge of getting an entire cake to bake evenly over muffins or even splitting the batter between two, 9-inch pans…and making sure the texture of the batter and the cooking time are sufficient to get the damn thing out of a ribbed bundt pan intact…yeah, ok, I’ll stop. But know that this cake was a labor of love. A lot of good peaches went in and will never come back…

What I ended up with is a sinfully rich, not-too-sweet, summery cake with a moist, fine texture. Nope, no grittiness here! I also appreciate how peach chunks kind of melt into the batter as it bakes and marbles the whole thing…giving us some AH-mazing little pockets of peachy goodness. (I really do wish the outside was a lighter golden brown like the wheat-based original, but coconut flour is like that sometimes…and the flavor definitely did NOT suffer). If you don’t have a bundt pan, just go ahead and bake it into a loaf (it’ll be a helluva lot easier to get out of the pan). While you’re at it, I bet you could cut it into slice and make a pretty bangin’ almond butter and honey sandwich. Or French toast…Oh. Hell. Yes.

One thing you absolutely cannot change in this cake is the ridiculous amount of butter. Don’t be Pansy-Bakers. The butter is what makes this cake. Butter is what makes life worth living.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 c Coconut Flour

2 T Arrowroot Powder

10 Eggs

1 c Pastured Butter (or Palm Shortening if dairy-free)

1/3 c Raw Honey

4 Ripe Peaches

1 t Sea Salt

1 t Baking Soda

1 Vanilla Bean, split

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk your dry ingredients together and set aside.

Take two of your peaches and cut into chunks. Using a food processor or blender, puree until you have a peachy slush. If needed, add a couple of tablespoons of water to help things along. Cube the other two peaches and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and honey. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until frothy and well combined. Add the peach puree.

Bit by bit, add the dry mixture and continue blending. With a spoon, mix in the vanilla bean and the last two peaches.

Generously grease a 10-inch bundt pan (or loaf pan) with coconut oil. Spoon the batter into the pan and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Serve with coffee. Lots of coffee.