Sides

Bread Stuffing Paleo SCD

Stuffing has always been my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal since I was a child. I used to be an Organic Artisan Bread Baker and sold my breads to the local co-op. I have had a serious love affair with really good homemade breads. Some of my fondest memories are of my mother’s homemade bread and how it made the kitchen smell. When my Mom went back to work when her children got older, my Pop took over the bread making. He used his own honey from the bees in the back yard to make his bread. Since going strictly Paleo almost three years ago, and then Paleo within an SCD Low FodMap template after discovering I had SIBO, I missed bread. I missed it more at first, and now I only miss it during special occasions when it is more the memories and emotional longing, because I am truly happy and feel amazing with my lifestyle and eating. However, I am making this spectacular stuffing for Thanksgiving using Pumpkin Seed Blender Bread. It is absolutely allowed because the flour is pumpkin seeds! I found the recipe on fellow blogger Danielle of Its a Love/Love Thing’s website that is here. I made a few modifications taking out the sweetness of the bread, which is a very good loaf, and made it savory for use as a stuffing bread to create a stuffing recipe. You can feel truly good about this stuffing. The pumpkin seeds add so much pure nutrition. They are rich in magnesium, zinc (which is important for prostate health), may improve insulin regulation, contain phytoestrogens, tryptophan (so if you are having turkey too, you will get a good amount of that and should sleep like a baby), and healthy fat. But really, it is simply a delicious, traditional stuffing that you will love. No need to tell anyone how good it is for them, unless you want to, because they will “gobble” it up!

Bread Stuffing with Paleo SCD Pumpkin Seed Bread

Bread Stuffing SCD Paleo

Directions:

Make bread as directed on Danielle’s website here omitting the honey, vanilla and cinnamon and adding 1 teaspoon each of thyme and sage and a 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.

Stuffing Ingredients:

3 Cups Cubed Pumpkin Seed Bread (1/2 inch cubes)

3/4 Cup Finely Diced Fennel Bulb

3 Green Onions, sliced, green parts only

2 Cups Packed Baby Spinach

2 Eggs

1 Cup Chicken or Turkey Broth (homemade if you have it)

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil or Duck Fat

1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley

1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme

1 Teaspoon Dried Sage

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Directions: Grease a small casserole dish, about a quart sized. Preheat oven 350º degrees. Place your bread cubes in a large bowl and set aside. In a dutch oven or heavy sautee pan add olive oil or duck fat over medium-high heat. Add the diced fennel and green onion, and cook for five minutes until the fennel is tender. Stir in the salt, pepper, thyme, sage and parsley. Add the spinach and stir until wilted.

In a small bowl whisk together the eggs and broth. Fold them into the bread cubes, then add the sauteed vegetable mixture and incorporate that evenly. Pour the stuffing into your casserole dish, spread evenly in the pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until internal temperature measures 165º degrees and/or it is set. Mmmmmm, Stuffing!

Serves 4 – 6

(If you are very low FodMap have a smaller serving)

Spicy Zucchini Sticks

Sides are some people’s favorite part of the meal. I like to have a lot of veggie sides for dinner so I can load up on my vegetables and get a variety of nutrients. As an added bonus, there are lots of leftover vegetables for breakfast and lunch, so I am cooking vegetables once a day, but eating them at every meal.

These Spicy Zucchini Sticks are a perfect side for burger or taco night. They are fast and have just the right amount of heat. I am serving them tonight with Messy Jessie’s.

Spicy Zucchini Sticks

SPICY ZUCCHINI STICKS

Ingredients:

4 Medium Zucchini

3/4 Cup Superfine Almond Flour

2 Tablespoons Garlic Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika

1/2 Teaspoon Chipotle Powder (No Garlic Added)

1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric

Directions:

Preheat oven 350º degrees. Wash the zucchini and slice into quarters lengthwise. Lay in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet, and brush with garlic olive oil. Set aside. In a small bowl mix together the superfine almond flour, black pepper, Himalayan pink salt, smoked paprika, chipotle powder and turmeric. Coat the zucchini sticks with the almond flour mixture by sprinkling over the zucchini and tossing a bit with your hands. Making sure they are in a single layer, bake in your preheated over 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. They are delicious with SCD Low FodMap BBQ Sauce.

Eat Your Nutrients!

Italian Bacon Popovers

The air is starting to cool here in preparation for Fall, and that makes me crave popovers! According to James Beard, although they resemble Yorkshire Pudding, they are purely an American creation. I have a lot of English heritage, and grew up eating recipes my Grandmother made from what she called “the old country” (England). So here is a version of a popover that I find to be Fall Comfort Food in my humble opinion. It is a little American, with an Italian Flair and a bit of English whimsy, but mostly they are plain delish! I added some good quality parmigiano reggiano, which is SCD Legal, but if you don’t tolerate dairy, they are equally delicious without it. They are so, so good hot from the oven! They are fun to eat, and I used leftover popovers to pack sandwiches for my daughters lunches the next day. Just split them and fill them for a mini sandwich. So, enjoy a little Fall comfort food and make some popovers!

Italian Bacon Popovers

You can use a popover pan like this, but a muffin pan works just fine! It makes a dozen puffy popovers!

Oven Ready Popovers

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil or Ghee, Melted

1/2 Cup Cooked, Sugar Free is Bacon (4 slices) cooked and chopped

8 Large Pastured Eggs

1 Cup Full Fat Coconut Milk

1/2 Cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano, optional Omit for Dairy Free

1/4 Cup Coconut Flour

1/4 Cup Scallions, green tops only, sliced

1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Preheat your oven 400º degrees. Place a half teaspoon of melted coconut oil or ghee in each popover or muffin pan cup and brush it up the sides. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk together with the coconut milk, whisk in the coconut flour and keep whisking briskly until no lumps, stir in the remaining ingredients, then fill each popover or muffin cup 2/3 full with batter. Don’t overfill, leave room for them to pop up! Your batter will look like this.

Italian Bacon Popover Batter

Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake 30 – 35 minutes keeping an eye on them until they are golden brown. Don’t be tempted to open the oven door. Think Souffle! When they are done, remove them from the oven and take them out of the pan while still hot and cool. Eat them warm, or they make a very nice mini-sandwich!

Italian Bacon Popover

Flavorful Golden Beet Sautee

These beets are magically delicious. Even if you think beets taste like dirt like several of my family members do…these do not! It is because of Nom Nom Paleo’s recipe for Magic Mushroom Powder. It is really insanely magical!

Flavorful Golden Beet Sautee

You can use any color beets you like. I used golden beets I found at my local market because they are pretty, but any variety will do.

Ingredients:

3 large beets or 5 medium, peeled and cubed into 1 inch cubes

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon Magic Mushroom Powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions: Melt your coconut oil in a large sautee pan and add the beets. Sprinkle with Magic Mushroom Powder and Pepper and sautee until starting to brown. Cover the beets for approximately ten minutes to soften and cook through. Then remove the lid again and continue sauteeing until the liquid is absorbed. Serve.

You will want to use this seasoning for many things. It stores in a jar for a long time just like any other seasoning salt. It does not add a mushroom flavor to your food, it adds umami. I would love to hear what you think!

Delicate Butter Lettuce Raspberry Orange Salad w/ Marcona Almonds & White Vinaigrette

Delicate Butter Lettuce Raspberry Orange Salad with Marcona Almonds and White Vinaigrette

We use all of our senses when we eat, each sense adds something to the experience of eating, but our eyes are huge! This salad is a feast for the eyes, and it has crunch and delicacy. Living butter lettuce is the lettuce in the clam shell you see everywhere at grocery stores with the root still attached. It is delicate, tender, a bit buttery, mild, nutritious (Vitamin A and Phosphorus) and very easy to digest. If you can find marcona almonds they are a Spanish almond similar in texture to macadamia nuts and a fun shape, regular almonds can be substituted as well.

Delicate Butter Lettuce Salad with White Vinaigrette

Delicate Butter Lettuce Raspberry Orange Salad w/ Marcona Almonds & White Vinaigrette

Remove the root from the butter lettuce, wash and spin in a salad spinner or pat dry. Tear into bite sized pieces and add coarsely chopped marcona almonds, raspberries and a peeled halved and sectioned fresh orange.

Whisk together the salad dressing ingredients until emulsified. You can serve the salad in a big bowl family style, or plate individual servings and drizzle with the White Vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

1 Head of Living Butter Lettuce

1 pint of Raspberries

1 Good Quality Orange

1/2 Cup Marcona Almonds, coarsely chopped

Dressing:

3/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup White Wine Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Clear Honey

1 Tablespoon Djon Mustard (no garlic such as Annie’s)

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Raspberries and Oranges are rich in Vitamin C, flavonoids, and minerals. The almonds add protein and the dressing healthy fat! Fat helps you digest the vegetables so you absorb more nutrients. So, no fat free salad dressing. You need fat. It doesn’t taste near as good anyway!

I love to hear your thoughts!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Butternut Chips

This simple, savory chip recipe will hit the spot! These chips have a lot of flavor! I served them with fish. They are also great with any meat, as a side, or as a snack or appetizer.

Butternut squash contains FodMaps, but allowed on a Low FodMap diet – 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup is the serving size depending on your tolerance level. (It is a low FodMap diet not a no FodMap diet). It is a good source of carbs and has more Vitamin A than pumpkin. It is rich in carotenoids, B-complex and minerals like iron, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium and phosphorus. I love the flavor of cardamom paired with smoked paprika, and cardamom is helpful for digestion. Wow! I am eating food I really love, and it is benefiting my body! Love it!

Here is a link to a comprehensive SCD/Low FodMap food guide I use, given to me by my practitioner. It is a free guide for Low FodMap/SCD eating.

Ingredients:

1 Small Butternut Squash (If using a large squash double the spices)

2 Tablespoon Coconut Oil, melted

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika

Pre-heat oven 400 degrees. Peel and seed the whole butternut squash. Slice into thick pieces using a food processor fitted with a slicing blade or a mandolin slicer. Toss the squash in the melted coconut oil until well coated. Mix the spices, salt and pepper in a small bowl until incorporated with each other, and then sprinkle over squash and toss again. Spread in a single layer on two parchment lined baking sheets.

Butternut Chips

Bake 20 minutes until browned. You decide how crispy you want them. If you want them really crunchy go longer in the oven, but keep a close eye on them so they don’t over brown. It is hard not to eat them all! So, hopefully someone will eat them with you. 🙂

I love to hear your thoughts!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Tapenade

Roasted Eggplant & Red Pepper Tapenade

Don’t you love dips and spreads? I do, and it is so nice to know you can make them yourself with great ingredients that feed your body and not only taste awesome, but have nothing but good ingredients. I am also looking for easy and fast! I served this tapenade recently with almond flour crackers. It is good with vegees also, like cucumber rounds, or on top of a salad. The eggplant is peeled before roasting, which makes it easy to digest and pretty when pureed.

Ingredients:

1 Medium Eggplant, peeled and cubed

2 Red Bell Peppers, seeded and diced

3 Green Scallions (green parts only, sliced)

3 Tablespoons Garlic Infused Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley

2 Tablespoons Fresh Basil

1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

1 Tablespoon – 18 year old aged Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat Oven 400 degrees. Placed cubed eggplant and peppers on a parchment lined baking sheet and drizzle the olive oil over them and add salt and pepper, then toss until coated. Place them in them in the oven and roast for 40 to 45 minutes tossing a few times during cooking until they are starting to brown and very soft. The last 20 minutes of the cooking time, add the chopped green scallions, toss and continue roasting.

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Tapenade

Remove from the oven. Cool for five minutes. Then, place the roasted vegetables in a food processor with a steel blade and pulse a few times. Add the balsamic, parsley and basil and continue pulsing until blended to your liking. I like just a few bits of vegetables showing and not completely blended. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Serve! This keeps in the refrigerator about a week and can be re-warmed or served cold.

Here is the tapenade served as a shrimp canape.

Roasted Eggplant & Red Pepper Tapenade Shrimp Canope

…..and served with crudites! There are so many options for this!

Roasted Eggplant & Red Pepper Tapenade

I love to hear your thoughts!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Spring Strawberry Sugar Snap Pea Salad

I am so happy to see the Spring produce start to come in at my local organic market. This week, I picked up some beautiful organic sugar snap peas and strawberries that inspired me to make this bright and colorful salad. I paired it with an orange vinaigrette, and it was a big hit! I sliced the sugar snap peas into 1 inch pieces and lightly sauteed them in olive oil and Pink Himalayan salt before adding them to the salad, so they are still crunchy.

Spring Strawberry Sugar Snap Pea Salad

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 Head of Organic Iceburg Lettuce

5 pieces of Sugar Free or Honey Sweetened Bacon cooked until crisp

2 Cups Organic Sliced Strawberries

1 Cup Organic Sugar Snap Peas

1/2 Cup Marcona Almonds (chopped), or Slivered Almonds

1/4 Cup Sliced Scallions, Green Part Only (the white part is a FodMap, so if you are low FodMap Avoid White Part)

Orange Vinaigrette (See Recipe Below)

Saute the one inch sliced sugar snap peas in olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of salt until tender, crisp, just 2 minutes. Add other ingredients except dressing to a large serving bowl, top with sugar snap peas, then toss with Orange Vinaigrette, sprinkle with a little more Himalayan Pink Salt (Kelly Bejelly of A Girl Worth Saving just wrote an informative article on the benefits of this salt), pepper, and serve. A delicious spring salad! This is one of my favorite salad dressing at the moment. I love the bright orange flavor.

Orange Vinaigrette

Orange Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Teaspoons Organic Orange Zest

2 Tablespoons Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 Tablespoon Clear Honey

1 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

2/3 Cup of Blood Orange Olive Oil or Unflavored Olive Oil (the blood orange gives it an extra orange boost.)

Whisk Together the ingredients and serve!

Won’t Miss a Thing Ranch Dressing!

Won’t Miss A Thing Ranch!

Garlic Infused Oil and Chives makes this dressing Rock! Garlic is a FodMap and not allowed on a low FodMap diet, but garlic Infused oil is allowed, and it is a fantastic replacement. I buy my oil from Fustini’s Oils online. You can find it at local oil and vinegar shops. The dressing is creamy, thick and tangy. My daughters (age 11 and 13) prefer it over any store bought versions. So here it is, I hope you love it! Let me know!

Makes: 1 1/4 Cups

1 Cup Paleo mayonnaise, or commercial sweetened with honey
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Garlic Infused Oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 1/2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar (no sugar)
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Add all the ingredients into a bowl, whisk until fully incorporated and enjoy! Mmmmm! So good!

Recovering From Digestive Distress

My name is Sam, and I am starting a blog to record all the yummy things that can be created even though you might be on a restricted diet. I have been eating a Paleo diet for a year and a half and now need to tweak it into a SCD/Low FodMap lifestyle. I was diagnosed with SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) recently after years of digestive problems. I am working with my doctor and a registered dietitian to heal, and still need and want to make and eat delicious food…..I am a foodie….. and will be preparing food that doesn’t make me or my family feel like they are missing anything. My goal is to create recipes that get me out of the kitchen and enjoying my friends, family, parties, nourish, heal and make me glow with health and still have people tell me what a fantastic cook I am! Stay tuned, I am here to help us! I also have a quirky pug named, Ming Ming, whom I love to share stories about.