Apple Banana Cookies

Started the Whole Life Challenge today which means no processed foods, starches, carbs and no sugar unless its natural like fruit. I will be posting lots of fun healthy recipes as I take this new journey over the next 8 weeks. Of course you have to have some goodies or what fun is it. This is a very yummy cookie recipe I found through the 21-Day Sugar Detox page. 

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped red apples, skin on
• 1 banana
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup macadamia nuts
• 1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp coconut oil, melted
• 3 eggs

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Place your almonds and macadamia nuts in your food processor and pulse until they are mixed together and in small chunks and place them in your mixing bowl
3. Next add your apples and banana to your food processor and mix well
4. Transfer that to your mixing bowl with your nuts
5. Now add in your coconut, cinnamon, vanilla, coconut oil, and eggs and mix well using a hand mixer or if your feeling strong use some of that old fashion elbow grease
6. Using a cookie scoop, form your cookie balls on your parchment paper lined cookie sheet
7. Once your sheet is full, flatten your balls into cookie shapes
8. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottom of your cookies are nice and lightly brown

Love and Enjoy!
Recipe courtesy of Civilized Caveman Cooking

Blackberry Cobbler

I know I know, Ive been slacking in the blogging department but I have not been slacking in cooking. I have lots of new fun recipes to share with you. Its summertime so we started getting our CSA deliveries again and I have been getting crafty (and using google a lot lol). Summer also means Blackberries, they are all over around here and we have been on a picking mission. We have frozen most so I will be making lots of fun goodies. I didnt freeze the last batch as we were ready to enjoy some of these delicious berries! It was late and I wanted something quick and simple, so here it is.....

Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients:


3 cups of fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 omega 3 enriched egg
2 tbsp coconut oil
A drizzle of raw organic honey
Cinnamon to taste

Coconut / Almond Milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Pour the blackberries into a pie pan.  In a small bowl mix together the egg, almond meal, and coconut oil, and shake in a bunch of cinnamon.  Stir well.  The mixture will be really thick and clumpy.  If you wish, drizzle a bit of raw organic honey on top of the blackberries.  By hand (or if you have a 2 year old to help you, that works just as well…) crumble the almond meal mixture on top of the blackberries and bake in your pre-heated oven for 35 minutes.  Serve in bowls with cold coconut or almond milk poured over the top. You can also serve with coconut or almond ice cream.

Love & Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Everyday Paleo

Paleo Banana Almond Butter Muffins

I know its been a while since I have posted, I have been busy baking but no time to post so I will start getting the latest dishes up for you soon I promise! I was craving something sweet but not too sweet the other day so I decided on muffins, and has hard as it is for me to forgo making them chocolate, because who doesn't love chocolate - I refrained. So here we go....

BANANA ALMOND BUTTER MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS: 

•        3 bananas (brown ones preferably)
•        1 cup Paleo Almond Butter
•        1 tablespoon of raw honey (melted)
•        1/3 cup of coconut oil (melted)
•        1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
•        3 eggs
•        1 cup Almond Flour (meal)
•        1/2 cup Coconut Flour (original recipe did not call for this but I felt it needed more flour or it might be too soupy in the middle baking)
•        ½ teaspoon sea salt
•        1 teaspoon baking soda

DIRECTIONS: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place muffin cups in the muffin pans. Set aside. ( I did not use cups I just sprayed with coconut oil from Trader Joes
3. Plug in your food processor. Place bananas, almond butter, honey, vanilla extract, coconut oil and eggs in food processor. Close lid and process until smooth. ( I mashed bananas with potato masher and beat everything together)
4. In a mixing bowl combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and sea salt.
5. Incorporate both dry and wet ingredients in a mixing bowl.
6. With a ½ teaspoon, scoop batter and carefully fill in “mini” muffin cups. Once all the mini muffin cups have been filled, use the rest of the batter for the regular sized muffins.
7. Place pans in the oven and bake fore 25-30 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on these little guys…you don’t want them to burn.

* Recipe yields 24 “mini” muffins and 6 “regular-sized” muffins.
* Nutritional information (per mini muffin): 106 calories; 5g fat; 3g carbohydrates; 1g protein.
* Nutritional information (per regular-sized muffin): 238 calories; 20g fat; 13g carbohydrates; 5g protein.



I made 12 large muffins and put the rest into my mini muffin pan, it made about 16.

Love and Enjoy!

Recipe Courtesy of Amazing Paleo

Sweet Potato Sausage Casserole

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound sausage
• 1 1/2 pounds Sweet potatoes, cut in 1- to 2-inch chunks
• 3 to 4 carrots, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 1 Pepper Chopped (Green, Yellow, Red or Orange)
• 2 medium onions, cut into wedges
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Cajun or Creole seasoning
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed and finely minced
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme, or about 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Heat oven to 425°. Grease a 3-quart baking dish or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the sausage pieces, potatoes, carrots, and onions in a large food storage bag or bowl; toss with the pepper, salt, Creole seasoning, garlic, thyme, and olive oil. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Roast for 45 to 60 minutes, until vegetables are fork-tender, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve with a salad and biscuits for a complete, delicious meal.

Love and Enjoy!

Recipe Courtesy of About.com Southern Food

Paleo Bran Muffins

Went to dinner the other night at Claim Jumpers and ordered the Salad bar, my boyfriend and I were reminiscing about the amazingly good Bran muffins you used to get with it. I got to thinking about finding a recipe to make Paleo friendly Bran Muffins and started my "Google" research. I came across 2 and decided to try the one here as it has less dates and calls for a banana, I had one I needed to use so it worked out. I have to say, they turned out really good. 

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup almond flour (meal)

1/2 cup flax meal

1 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp almond butter

3 eggs

3 dates, pitted

2 tbsp molasses( I Used Maple Syrup as a Substitute)

1/2 ripe banana

1/4 cup almond milk  

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup walnuts (chopped) (I used pecans as I am not a fan of walnuts)

Directions:

1. Blend almond butter, eggs, dates, molasses, banana and almond milk in a Blender and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl mix together almond flour, flax meal, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in wet mixture from your blender and fold in raisins and walnuts.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

 

Love and Enjoy!

 

Original Recipe from Elana's Pantry and revised by Stacy Deering. 

 

 

Grain-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Always up for trying something new I decided today I would bake these cookies I found on Pinterest. These are grain free and super easy, and so tasty I am having a hard time not eating them all! Ive hear they are not good cold but considering I just made them I have no idea if this is true or not yet, but they are definitely yummy after cooling for 10-15 min.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter
1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (commenters have used agave with success!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips ( I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate mega chunks, they are dairy, nut and soy free)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined. I moved the contents to a bowl and stirred in the chocolate chips. The mixture will be very thick and sticky. With wet hands, form into 1 1/2" balls. Place onto a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper ( I used wax paper since I was out of parchment). If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Yields about twenty 1 1/2" cookie dough balls.

Serving Size: Yields about twenty 1 1/2" cookie dough balls

Love and Enjoy!

Paleo Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Trying to expand my Paleo Horizons and make some of my favorite recipes the Paleo way. I found this one by way of Google on PrimalPal's website. I don't know that Im that crazy about the seasonings they used, its a little much for my tastes but it was still good. I will most likely try it again using different flavoring and post both recipes. For now, here is how this one was made:


Prep Time: Approx 20 mins.
Cook Time: Approx 30 mins.
Serves: 4 ( I cut this into 6 servings)
Ingredients for Savory Paleo Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie
1 lb ground beef
2 large sweet potatoes
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup of mushrooms, chopped ( I opted to leave this out and replaced with chopped green bell peppers)
2 tbsp of butter ( I only used 1tbsp and it was just fine this way)
1/4 cup of full fat coconut milk ( I used almond milk instead)
1 egg
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of allspice
1 tsp of nutmeg
3 tsp of salt ( I went light on the salt as I am not a big fan)
2 tsp of black ground pepper

Directions for Savory Paleo Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie
1. Rinse of your sweet potatoes and place them in a glass microwave safe dish with about a 1/2 inch of water. Pierce the potatoes a few times, cover and cook in the microwave for 10 - 15 minutes. All microwaves are different so you'll just want to ensure the potatoes are cooked all the way through and are soft. ( I do not like to microwave potatoes so I peeled and boiled them for 8 minutes instead)

2. While the potatoes are cooking take your cast iron skillet ( I do not own one of these so I just used a regular frying pan) and cook the beef, onion, carrots and mushrooms until the beef is no longer pink and the carrots are soft. Mix in the cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 2 teaspoons of the salt.

3. Take your sweet potatoes out and give them a minute to cool so they are easy to handle. You'll make a cut down the middle of the potatoes and then scoop out all the good stuff into a mixing bowl.

4. Mash the sweet potatoes with the egg, butter, coconut milk, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mash the potatoes until they are smooth.

5. Spread the mashed sweet potatoes over the ground beef as evenly as possible. (since I do not have a skillet I placed the meat mixture in a casserole dish and baked it in that)

6. Bake the dish in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 22 - 25 minutes.

7. Broil the dish for 8 minutes to give it a nice finish.

8. Serve it up and enjoy.

Love and Enjoy!