Coconut Flour Pancakes and Waffles

A recipe search for "paleo pancakes" is what led me to Marks Daily Apple for the first time last winter. Fairly new to the exciting world of grain-free baking, I had never even considered making grain-free pancakes or waffles. After a quick Google search, the first search result was a link to MDA. My first click into the world of Mark Sisson had me hooked. His website became my new obsession, and I gained much more knowledge of the paleo lifestyle through his website. The recipe I found for pancakes was one that used almond meal, and although they were delicious, they didn't quite make the pancake cut. They were more like yummy almond latkes. After a year of adventures in grain-free cooking, along with my favorite partner in crime (and love of my life, Bill), I decided on a second attempt at grain-free pancakes (plus waffles!), this time with coconut flour.

As an artist, I love creating art out of food. I visualize all that is going into the recipe, how it will look during cooking, and how I want it to look after. My desire for cooking is more targeted toward creating something I never knew I could create, rather than the final result of getting to eat it. A bonus to it all is making something that I know Bill will love, and his reaction to the food that I make is the icing on the cake. For this recipe, I knew we would create something beautiful, delicious, and I knew Bill would absolutely love it.

This is a simple recipe for waffles, or pancakes. The only difference in the two is that we added extra cinnamon to the waffles for a stronger cinnamon flavor. The topping for the waffles were simple sliced bananas sauteed in coconut oil, along with chopped pecans. The sweetness of the banana, along with the warm, sweet flavors of the pecans and maple syrup combined beautifully together. This was definitely a dessert breakfast, but for those of you missing the comfort of a warm waffle or pancake breakfast, this one is for you!


Waffles
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 dropper of liquid stevia

Process:

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, blend all ingredients with a hand mixer.
2. Heat waffle iron to 'waffle' setting (seriously!) - its medium high heat, typically.
3. Drop batter into center of waffle iron to cover about 3/4 of area. This batter does not expand the way traditional flour waffles do.
4. Waffles are done when they easily separate from the waffle iron, typically 3-5 minutes.
   

recipe above makes just over 1 cluster of 4 waffles (10x10 waffle iron)

[Printer friendly recipe - click here]

Pancakes
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 dropper of liquid stevia
  

Process:

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, blend all ingredients with a hand mixer.
2. Heat coconut oil in a non-stick frying pan or griddle to medium heat.
3. Pour 1/8 cup of batter into frying pan or griddle.
   
4. Cook for 2 minutes, flip, cook for 2 more minutes, repeat with the rest of the batter.

[Printer friendly recipe - click here]

Fried Banana and Toasted Pecan Topping
Ingredients:

• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Process:

1. Heat coconut oil in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat.
2. Slice banana and add to frying pan.
3. Sear banana slices until brown and crispy on the bottom side, then flip.
4. Add pecans to frying pan and lightly toast with the seared banana slices.
5. Top over waffles or pancakes and serve.

We topped the waffles and pancakes with a drizzle of pure maple syrup. These protein packed waffles would be a wonderful treat to bring as breakfast in bed to your loved one come Valentines day, or as a breakfast treat for your grain-free little one. Anyway you'd like to serve them, you wont be disappointed.

As always, enjoy!

Chicken and Vegetable 'Lo Mein

Growing up one of my favorite dinners to have was Chinese food. It was usually a special occasion that we ordered Chinese, so it wasn't an indulgence that I had often. Bill is another lover of Chinese food, but his mom would frequently cook home made Chinese dinners for their family, so of course what he ate was a little healthier than ordering greasy Chinese from a restaurant. These days I cant stomach the idea of Chinese food, it's right up there with drive through and pizza, yuck.
Although heavy sauces and vegetable oil fried Chinese food is not something that Bill and I are interested in, we do however enjoy a fresh home made stir fry, with mouth watering Asian flavors.

Every once in a blue moon Bill creates a masterpiece in the kitchen, just kidding! Yes, more often than not I'm the head chef, but the recipe is never complete without agreement on both parts. For this particular recipe, Bill took the lead, and created a delicious Asian stir fry using sesame oil and coconut aminos. The flavors were outstanding! The added shredded cabbage gives the facade of noodles being in the dish, but enhances the texture beautifully with subtle crunch.

Ingredients:
Chicken or beef
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup water chestnuts
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and cut in half
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 tablespoon minced Ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups broccoli
2 cups shredded cabbage
Toasted sesame oil
Coconut aminos
Sesame seeds to garnish
Process:
Clean all vegetables and trim fat from meat (if applicable).
Cut broccoli, chicken and mushrooms into bite sized pieces.
Thinly slice 2 cups of cabbage (about half the head of cabbage).
Chop almonds, green onion, celery; mince garlic and ginger.
Heat wok over high heat.
Add sesame oil, swirl to coat bottom of wok, then add meat.
Cook meat for 3-4 minutes, until mostly cooked.
Add in broccoli, water chestnuts, celery and shiitake mushrooms; cook for 2 minutes
Add in almonds, cabbage, ginger, green onion and garlic. Add a splash of coconut aminos (2-4 tbsp). Cook 2-3 minutes, until cabbage softens a little.
Remove from heat, garnish with sesame seeds, and enjoy!

Stuffed Bell Pepper

Back when Balanced Bites was an organic meal delivery business, stuffed peppers were among the favorite dishes ordered by my clients. At that point in time, I was mixing a few different ingredients into them but I keep it pretty simple when I'm cooking at home for myself.

The inspiration and motivation to make stuffed peppers came about when I was strolling the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market this past Saturday and spotted a big yellow bell pepper that looked just perfect for this destiny. I knew I had a pound of grass-fed ground beef defrosted at home so it was excellent timing for me to whip up some stuffed peppers. The whole thing is quite simple, really... it's just a matter of pre-cooking the pepper halves a bit if you like and then making a tasty mixture that you'll like to put on the inside, and voila - stuffed peppers. I can't say I make them exactly the same every single time since I usually just go with whatever I have on-hand, but here's what I did this time.



Italian Style Stuffed Bell Peppers


Ingredients

2 bell peppers
(I used yellow but any color is fine)
1 Tbsp bacon grease or coconut oil
1/2 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
4 small tomatoes, diced
(or use 1/2c canned diced tomatoes)
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
(or lean conventional ground beef / ground turkey)
6 Fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
2c Baby spinach, finely chopped
sea salt - to taste
black pepper - to taste
hot sauce - optional, as garnish
extra basil leaves garnish


Preparation

Preheat your oven to 375.


Halve the bell peppers and place them in a roasting dish face-down for about 10-15 minutes. Note: You can skip this step if you want to keep the peppers more firm/raw when you eat them.



FYI: The Paleo Diet
Cookbook is now
available for pre-order.
While the peppers are pre-cooking, you'll cook the stuffing on the stove-top. Use a large sautee pan or a large pot. I'd recommend not using cast iron for this recipe since we're cooking tomatoes and the acid of the tomatoes will react with the cast iron.


Place your bacon grease or coconut oil in the pan and then cook the onions over medium-high heat until they're slightly browned on the edges and appear cooked through (translucent). You may season them with salt and pepper to taste.

Next add the tomatoes and garlic and allow the ingredients to simmer together for a couple of minutes. Then add the ground beef or turkey, breaking it up and allowing it to cook through completely. If you have grass-fed beef, you may leave it a bit pink.

Once the meat is cooked, taste the mixture to check for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Then add the chopped basil and spinach and mix them in just allowing them to wilt.


Mark Sisson's cookbook
seems to be quite popular
if you're looking for recipes.
Remove the peppers from the oven when they're just a bit softened, then flip them over and spoon in your stuffing mixture. If you would like to eat them at this point, you can go right ahead. Otherwise, place them back into the oven for around 15-20 minutes to allow the flavors to meld even more. I like to make a bunch of these ahead and either freeze them or just refrigerate them to heat up in my toaster oven later.


I also like to sprinkle a few dashes of hot sauce over the top and garnish them with basil leaves, just for visual appeal.

Depending on the size of your peppers, this will make approximately 4 pepper halves and will be around 4oz of protein in each one. One or two of these is a complete meal depending on how much you eat.

Breakfast Buritto

We have had a fewpeople come to us asking for more breakfast options. Yes, our classic veggie scramble is delicious, hard boiled eggs are quick and easy, you can't go wrong with egg muffins, and who doesn't like classic bacon and eggs? With any way of eating, it is easy to get bored if you are eating the same thing over and over. One of our goals with this blog is to keep healthy eating fresh and exciting by offering many meal options to keep you all inspired to continue to make healthy choices with your eating.

The great thing about primal eating is that more often than not Bill and I don't even realize we are hungry until lunch time, so getting bored with the same breakfast doesn't happen often for us. However, we are constantly on the hunt for exciting breakfast ideas. After Bill made his delicious taco recipe the other night, I immediately had a breakfast idea that I thought would be fantastic. My thought was to make a crepe style egg tortilla, and fill it with our tasty taco ground turkey, top it with guacamole, wrap it all up in the egg tortilla, and drizzle some hot sauce on it. Mmmm delicious.
This was our first attempt at making a tortilla out of an egg. It was surprisingly very easy, and held up just fine for the meal. For this dish we used free range liquid egg whites from Trader Joe's, but feel free to use whole omega 3 eggs. Both options would be fantastic.

Ingredients:

Homestyle taco meat (Just the seasoned ground turkey. Grass fed beef is great too, if you prefer red meat.)

Guacamole (Brock's Guac')1/3 cup free range liquid egg white, or 2 whole omega 3 eggs whisked
Hot sauce - (Franks Red Hot is fine, or you can grab any organic hot sauce that your taste buds desire. Just be sure to check the ingredients, sometimes sugar sneaks in there.)
Process:
Brown ground turkey or beef in a skillet, and season with our homemade taco seasoning.
Grease a frying pan with cooking spray, or coconut oil.
Pour egg into frying pan on medium low heat, and allow egg to cook all the way through.
Carefully remove egg from frying pan and place on a plate.
Scoop ground taco meat onto egg tortilla, and top with Brock's Guac'.
Drizzle with hot sauce if desired. Wrap up the burrito and enjoy!