Tag Archives: Paleo

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!

Red, White and Blueberry Snack Bread

SCD, Paleo Red, White & Blueberry Loaf

SCD Paleo Red White and Blueberry Bread

Memorial Day weekend is almost here! I always get excited when Summer is just around the corner. I start thinking about fun summery food. I love the 4th of July, hanging out with family and friends, picnics, the kids twirling around with sparklers waiting for the fireworks to start, parades, barbecues, happy laughter, and lots of outdoor time. This bread is not only yummy, it is fun and just right for a picnic in the Summer. I am serving this at a cookout over Memorial Day. It keeps well in the refrigerator, so it can be made in advance leaving you more time to play outside! It would also be very delicious and pretty topped with some fresh berries and coconut milk whipped cream if you want to dress it up more. But it is pretty just by itself, and it is soft and yummy.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Super Fine Almond Flour

2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon of Pure Stevia Leaf (optional, I use one that contains just Stevia Leaf here.)

4 eggs

1/4 Cup Organic Palm Shortening (I like Spectrum) or Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons Clear Honey

1 1/2 teaspoon SCD Legal Vanilla Extract (just vanilla and alcohol in the ingredients)

1/4 teaspoon SCD Legal Lemon Extract (optional)

1/2 Cup Diced Fresh or Frozen Strawberries

1/2 Cup Fresh or Frozen Blueberries

Red, White & Blueberry Bread Batter

Directions:

Preheat Oven 350 degrees. Lightly grease a medium loaf pan, then line it with parchment paper.

Mix together Almond Flour, Coconut Flour, Baking Soda and Salt and a pinch of nutmeg and the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl whisk eggs, then add the clear honey, melted palm shortening and the rest of ingredients up to the fresh berries. Add the wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Gently fold in the berries so you don’t start getting swirls of the berry in your batter (Red, White and Blue).

Pour batter into the loaf pan, smooth the top, and bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for ten minutes, then remove loaf from the pan and cool completely. Serve warm or wrap tightly and refrigerate. It is good warm from the oven, (but give it an hour to cool before cutting) and also cold from the fridge is delightful on a warm day. Store in the refrigerator. You can eat this bread anytime of day. My daughters love it for breakfast!

SCD, Paleo, Red, White & Blueberry Snack Loaf

I love to hear your thoughts!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Honey Mustard Chicken Wings

If you are craving some tangy, succulent wings that are easy and everyone will love, this recipe is a great choice! The sauce is quick to mix together. They smelled so good when they were baking in the oven, I could hardly wait to dig into them! They would be great the next day in a lunchbox, but we didn’t have any left, so next time, I will need a double batch. They are baked and then finished off under the broiler to get them nice and crispy.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Chicken Wings

2 TBS. Garlic Infused Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Clear Honey

1 Tablespoon Garlic Free Yellow Mustard

1 Tablespoon Djon Mustard

1 teaspoon Ground Cumin

1 teaspoon Chipotle Chili Powder

1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/8 teaspoon White Pepper

two dashes of Habanero Pepper Sauce

2 Tablespoons Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice

Preheat oven 375 degrees. Lay wings on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with a little extra Himalayan Pink Salt and Black Pepper (pre-season your meat to build flavor) and bake ten minutes. Meanwhile whisk up the rest of the ingredients for the sauce. After ten minutes of baking, remove wings and brush with some of the sauce…coat them well. Bake another ten minutes, remove from the oven and turn the wings over and brush again and return to the oven ten more minutes. Repeat once more for ten minutes. Keep an eye on your wings. (Depending on the size of them the time will vary. My wings were medium sized and took 40 minutes.) Turn on broiler and broil the wings until they are at your desired crispiness, coating again and turning once. This will only take a minute or two. Serve!

Can't Resist Them - Honey Mustard Chicken Wngs

Can’t Resist Them – Honey Mustard Chicken Wings

SCD Paleo Strawberry Lemon Tea Cookies

These are bite size, or maybe two bites, depending on how large your bites are, shortbread tea cookies with freeze dried strawberries and lemon zest. They have just the right amount of strawberry and lemon flavor, and they are egg free if you have difficulty with eggs. They are really pretty when plated to serve. You could include them as part of a luncheon, take them to a spring picnic, or serve them as an after school snack for your kids.

Strawberry Lemon Tea Cookies

So, here we go! Let’s whip up a quick cookie!

Preheat Oven 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Superfine Almond Flour
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt
1/4 teaspoon Gluten Free baking soda
1/4 Cup Organic Palm Shortening
3 Tablespoons of Clear Honey
Zest of one Lemon
1/4 Cup of Freeze Dried Strawberries cut into small 1/2 inch pieces

Mix together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl including lemon zest. Melt shortening then stir in the honey. Gently but thoroughly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the strawberries. Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 8 – 9 minutes until the tops are just starting to show a touch of golden brown. Cool a bit before popping them in so you don’t burn your tongue. 🙂

Scooped Strawberry Lemon Tea Cookies Read to Bake

Makes approximately 16 cookies.

Thick and Rich Italian Tomato Sauce

Italian Tomato Sauce with Zucchini Noodles

This recipe for Italian Tomato Sauce is thick and rich with a lot of flavor. You can make it in larger batches and freeze it too ,so you always have good sauce on hand. You need a food processor or immersion blender for this recipe.

Thick and Rich Italian Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

2 – 25 oz. cartons or cans of Strained Tomatoes

1 orange bell pepper, diced (they are the sweetest)

1 Tablespoon Garlic Infused Olive Oil

1 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tsp. ground fennel

1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning (I used Spicely Organics certified gluten free)

1/2 Cup Dry Red Wine

Place garlic infused oil, diced orange bell pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan Pink Salt in a dutch oven or large stock pot and cook on medium high heat until soft and starting to brown. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer on stove top with sauce partially covered with the lid for approximately 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce, thicken up, and get infused with all the seasonings you added to it. Using a food processor or immersion blender blend the sauce until smooth incorporating all the orange pepper so there are no chunks. Serve! The sky is the limit. I served it over zucchini ribbon noodles.

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!

A Quick Snack That is Portable and Healthy – Sardines….Yep!

Some days are crazy and I don’t have time to “fix” a snack, or my homemade snack stash has run out. It is challenging if you have a couple crazy busy days doing errands, appointments and just life in general. This is when I grab a tin of sardines or mackerel, drain it, and put some mustard on it, sit down for a minute and refuel. I love the benefits of sardines and mackerel…..Calcium, Omega 3’s, Protein. It is a power snack. The last few days have been crazy. My daughter is getting married, and I am wedding planning. The other day we had dress fittings, piano lessons, pick ups, drop offs. I had a minute to sit down outside in a comfy chair and eat a can of mackerel, listen to the birds, and look at the sky. It was just right. I also find that eating a snack like that holds me over just fine until the next meal, and no sugar crashes. So, here’s to sardines!

A Quick Snack – Mackerel with Mustard

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

I love really good sauces. They add a lot of flavor and interest to food and can be used in so many ways. It is hard to find commercial sauces that have clean ingredients. Here is one loaded with nutrition. It is actually fun to make. It is good served with meat and drizzled on vegetables. It also makes a good dip for homemade Paleo/SCD crackers. The red peppers makes the sauce sweet and loaded with Vitamin C, and it has good fats from olive oil and walnuts or pine nuts.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients:

2 Red Bell Peppers
3 Tablespoons Toasted Walnuts or Pine Nuts
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon 18 year old Balsamic (SCD Legal if Aged 18 years) or 2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

Roasted Peppers: Cut the peppers in half, remove seeds and sprinkle with Himalayan Pink Sea Salt. Place cut side down on parchment lined cookie sheet and roast 15 – 20 minutes or until they start to blacken. Make sure they blacken so the skins peel off easily and you get the roasted flavor. Cool the peppers for a few minutes, then carefully remove outer skin. Meanwhile toast your walnuts or pine nuts over medium heat in a dry saucepan on the stove top. It should take 2-3 minutes. Pine nuts toast faster so keep an eye on them. If you are eating SCD make sure your balsamic is 18 year old (so there is no residual sugar) or use red wine vinegar.

Add skinless peppers to a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. That’s it! Serve it warm over grilled chicken, fish, vegetables, lamb. Use your imagination! Below I put some leftover leg of lamb on a scallion carrot pancake and drizzled it over the top for an afternoon snack. This keeps in the refrigerator for a week.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce Drizzled over Lamb and Scallion Pancake

Honeyed Vanilla Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream

The weather is getting warmer, and I am craving ice cream. Yummy, missing nothing ice cream. This recipe is dairy free, SCD, Low FodMap and Paleo. It is really pretty to look at, and the swirls of raspberry add just the right amount of flavor burst in your mouth.

Cold & Creamy Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream!

The recipe uses pastured egg yolks for a custardy creaminess and nutrition. Yolks have fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K2) and those important Omega 3’s. It is churned in an ice cream maker. If you happen to have any left over, you can freeze it and let is set on the counter for 5 or 10 minutes until it softens enough to scoop.

There are a few steps, but it is worth it, and you can do it ahead! So, if you are having company, you can refrigerate the mix up to 24 hours, then just before you set down to dinner, put it in your ice cream freezer. It is done in 30 minutes while you eat your main course.

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks (pasture raised if you can for the extra nutrients)
2 cans of Full Fat Coconut Milk (no additives)
6 Tablespoons Clear Honey
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract (SCD legal)
Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

——————————————————-

Swirl:

10 oz. frozen Raspberries
1 Tablespoon Clear Honey

Mix Egg Yolks and 6 Tablespoons Clear Honey in a stand mixer or use a hand mixer. Beat until thick and light. Scald the coconut milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Then, slowly pour hot coconut milk into egg mixture while beating on low. Place the mixture over a hot water bath (double broiler) and heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in Vanilla Extract. Chill until cool and up to 24 hours.

To Make Raspberry Swirl: Heat the frozen raspberries with the honey until they thaw and simmer. Press the mixture through a mesh strainer to extract the seeds. Refrigerate this separately.

When ready to make the ice cream. Freeze the vanilla ice cream in an ice cream freezer. After the vanilla is finished, swirl in the raspberry sauce, but do not mix completely, leave it swirled.

Makes: 4 generous or 6 moderate servings

Honeyed Vanilla Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream – I Dare You To Take Only One Bite!

Savory Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

I don’t know about you, but when I make a recipe for meat that is juicy, fast and delicious fresh and even better leftover, it is a keeper! These thighs are so yummy and have a bit of a umami addiction to them. The ingredients are SCD, Low FodMap and Paleo and Gluten Free. I love to chop up the leftover chicken the next day and add to a salad for lunch. I also pack them cold for my girls’ school lunches the next day, and they love them that way. Since Chili Powder has garlic added, I found Chipotle powder a fantastic option. Make sure your spices are gluten free and organic is even better. I love Spicely Organic Spices since they are certified gluten free, and I am very sensitive to gluten. Here is the recipe. Let me know what you think. I served the thighs with oven roasted zucchini spears drizzled with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (recipe coming soon), and a salad.

Savory Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

8 bone in skin on chicken thighs
2 tablespoons garlic oil
1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder (just chipotle peppers in it)
1 1/2 teaspoons himalayan pink salt or sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne (more or less depending on how much kick you like)
6 tablespoons clear honey
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Lay your chicken thighs out on a parchement covered rimmed baking sheet.

Mix together garlic oil through cayenne and stir to create a rub. Rub evenly all over both sides of the thighs.

Rubbed Thighs Ready for Broiling

Mix together 6 tablespoons of clear honey and 1 tablespoon cider vinegar to brush on at the end and set aside.

Broil chicken 7 minutes, then turn all the thighs over and broil for 7 minutes more. Take thighs out of oven and brush with half of the honey/vinegar mixture and return to broiler for 2 minutes, turn once more and brush with remaining honey/vinegar and broil 2 more minutes or until 165 degrees in the center. That is 18 minutes and they are done!