Tag Archives: Real Food

Lamb and Pine Nut Meatballs with Swiss Chard

This is a hearty meatball, and a delicious way to get in your greens! The meatballs are baked on top of the swiss chard (1 cup has 18 milligrams of calcium). Fats help with the digestion and absorption of vitamins and minerals in greens, plus it makes them taste so good! The pine nuts give the meatballs texture and personality. The mint, fennel, leeks and orange zest pair very well together with the lamb. This meatball recipe is an easy, one dish, main dish. Grass fed lamb is a good source of zinc, vitamin B12 and selenium. I also served this dish with roasted carrots, beets and a side salad. You can add any vegetables you like to your meal. Meatballs are so versatile! It is one of the things I love about them! Plus, since I have been really busy with my health coaching classes, this dish gets me out of the kitchen fast! I am sure many of you busy people out there will appreciate this easy, delicious recipe as much as I do!

Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts ans Swiss Chard

Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Swiss Chard

Lamb Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Swiss Chard

Ingredients:

2 Pounds of Grass Fed Ground Lamb

1/2 Cup Pine Nuts

1/2 Cup Superfine Almond Flour

1/4 Cup Finely Chopped Leek

1 Egg

2 Tablespoons plus 2 Teaspoons Garlic Infused Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Dried Mint

1 Tablespoon Ground Fennel

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

Zest of One Organic Orange

1 Bunch of Swiss Chard, stems removed and coarsely chopped.

Directions:

Set your oven to broil.

Toast the pine nuts in a pan over medium high heat on the stove top for five minutes or until golden brown.

Mix together the ground lamb, pine nuts, and remaining ingredients except the chopped swiss chard. Form into golf ball sized meatballs. Place the chopped swiss chard in a large non-stick, oven-proof pan or large dutch oven. Toss with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle lightly with additional salt and pepper to taste. Place the meatballs on top of the swiss chard, leaving space between the meatballs for even cooking.

Place meatballs and swiss chard under the broiler, and broil for five minutes. Turn oven to bake at 375º degrees, and bake an additional ten minutes until the internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 165º degrees. At this point your chard will be nicely cooked, with the lamb juices incorporated into them, and the meatballs soft and tender. In a pinch, you can also use frozen chard with great results! Approximately 18 Meatballs.

Eat Your Nutrients!

Rum Print Cookies

Instead of visions of sugarplums dancing through my head, I have rum prints on my mind. What in the world is a rumprint? I found a recipe quite a few years ago in a holiday magazine. The cookies were very unique and memorable. I have never found another quite like them. Unfortunately, I lost the magazine at some point in a move I made. So, here is a replication from my memory of what they were like. These have been Paleo-ized, and I have to say, they are as good as I remember. The cookie base uses finely ground walnuts, and the frosting uses cocoa butter for creaminess and stability.

Rum Print Cookies

Ingredients for Cookie:

1 Cup of Walnuts (finely ground) I used a mini Ninja to do this (see Kitchen Equipment I Love)

1/4 Cup Coconut Flour

1/4 Cup Organic Palm Shortening

1/4 Cup Clear Clover Honey

1 Egg

1/4 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan or Sea Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (SCD Legal)

Directions: Preheat oven 350º degrees. With an electric hand held mixer, cream together the shortening and honey. Add the egg and continue to beat for one minute. Add the vanilla extract and incorporate. In a small bowl whisk together the finely ground walnuts, coconut flour, salt, nutmeg and baking soda. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on medium speed until blended. With a tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 11 minutes.

When the cookies come out of the oven, using your thumb, make an indentation in the top of each cookie for the thumprint. Cool completely.

Frosting Ingredients:

1 Cup Raw Cocoa Butter, Chopped (See In My Pantry for Resources)

1/4 Cup Clover Honey

2 Tablespoons Organic Palm Shortening

4 Teaspoons White Rum

1/8 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Nutmeg for Sprinkling

Directions: In a double broiler, melt the cocoa butter. Remove from heat and add into a bowl. With an electric hand held mixer, beat the honey, salt and shortening into the cocoa butter. Add the rum and continue beating until the frosting is solidifying. The cocoa butter will start out clear when hot and become a white consistency as it cools. When it is a good texture for piping, place the frosting in a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe into the center of the cooled cookies. It sets up quickly, so pipe right away. Alternatively, you can scoop the frosting into the middle of the cookies by hand if you don’t feel like piping. Sprinkle each cookie with a dash of nutmeg.

Makes 15 Cookies

Rum Prints

Quick Zesty Chicken and Carrots

Here come the holidays! I don’t know about you, but there are plenty of days when I am rushing around at dinner time to get something on the table that is nourishing, delicious and fast! This is a very moist and flavorful chicken dish that will have you out of the kitchen in no time. Serve it with a salad on the side.

Quick and Zesty Chicken and Carrots

Ingredients:

8 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs

12 Carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

1/4 Cup Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice

Zest of one Lime

1/4 Cup Garlic Olive Oil, divided

1 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Chipotle Pepper

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper

Preheat Oven 350º degrees. Cut the chicken thighs into quarters. Mix together Salt, Pepper, Chipotle & Cayenne. Heat 2 Tablespoons of Garlic Olive Oil in a large nonstick oven proof skillet over medium high heat. Add the carrots and sautee for 5 minutes until starting to brown. Remove the carrots from the pan and set aside. Add the other two tablespoons of Garlic Olive Oil to the pan maintaining the heat. Sprinkle the chicken with the seasoning and add to the pan. Cook the chicken four minutes without touching it, then flip it over and cook another four minutes. Zest the lime over the chicken, add the carrots back in to the chicken and pour over the lime juice. Toss to coat with the juice and zest and place the pan in the oven for ten minutes until chicken is cooked through. Serve!

4 Servings

Zesty Chicken and Carrots

(See In My Pantry For Ingredient Links)

Eat Your Nutrients!

Very Vanilla Truffles

Truffles are such a treat for holidays! These truffles have just the right creamy mouth feel when you bite into them, with a little bit of salty and sweet and a hint of rum, which raises them to a whole new level of delicious! The cocoa butter melds perfectly with the almond butter to give you the creaminess everyone desires in a truffle. I love them as a special treat, and I think you will too. They are beautiful to give as gifts in mini muffin papers and then placed in a decorative tin, and equally enticing served on a pretty tray at a party. So, lets get to it! They aren’t difficult, but they are fancy!

Very Vanilla Truffles

Very Vanilla Truffles

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Cocao Butter (chopped)

1/2 Cup Almond Butter (no sugar added)

1/4 Cup Clear Honey

1 Vanilla Bean (split and seeds removed then pod discarded)

1 Tablespoon Light Rum

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (SCD Legal no additives)

1/4 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1/4 Cup Toasted Pecans, finely chopped for rolling the truffles

Preheat your oven 350º degrees. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for five minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

In a double broiler (You can also use a saucepan and a metal bowl for this to substitute as a double broiler) place approximately 2 inches of water and bring the water to a simmer. In the top part of your double broiler or a metal bowl that will fit on the saucepan without touching the water below, place the almond butter, cocoa butter, honey, vanilla bean and Himalayan Pink Salt. Put the bowl of ingredients over the simmering water and stir with a wire whisk to melt and incorporate the mixture thoroughly. When the cocoa butter is melted and the ingredients well combined, remove from the water and stir in the rum and vanilla extract. It will be quite liquid at this point. Refrigerate the truffle filling in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until it becomes firm enough to scoop and roll into balls, but not too firm. Meanwhile, finely chop your cooled pecans. I use a Mini Ninja Express Chop for this because it is fast and easy to clean up. When the filling is set enough to roll, scoop the filling with a tablespoon cookie scoop, roll into balls and then roll into the finely chopped pecans. Put them in mini muffin cups and keep in the refrigerator. These will keep for at least two weeks.

Very Vanilla Truffles

These truffles are pretty, delicious treats!

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Homemade Raspberry Vinegar

Raspberry Vinegar is one of my favorite ways to make a salad dressing. It is colorful and is one of my favorite fruits. Store bought raspberry vinegar is not allowed on the SCD diet because of added sugar, but this one is! It is made with real raspberries and red wine vinegar and is simple and fresh tasting with just two ingredients! Raspberries are loaded with Vitamin C and are an excellent source of Flavanoids and other vitamins. So here we go! The color is gorgeous!

Homemade Raspberry Wine Vinegar

Ingredients:

12 ounces of fresh raspberries

1/2 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

Directions:

Place the fresh raspberries half at a time in a fine meshed sieve like this one. Hold the sieve over a bowl and press the raspberries with a spatula releasing the juice into the bowl and keeping the seeds and flesh in the sieve. Discard the seeds and pulp. Whisk in a half cup of Red Wine Vinegar into the raspberry juice (there should be half a cup of juice). Shake and store in the refrigerator to use as needed. That’s it! Now, if you love Raspberry Vinaigrette as much as I do, check out my recipe for Real Raspberry Vinaigrette here.

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Real Raspberry Vinaigrette

I have been really missing raspberry vinaigrette for my salads since starting the SCD, Low FodMap Diet. Here is a recipe for Real Raspberry Vinaigrette that had me wondering why I waited so long to try it. The seeds are removed from the raspberries using a fine meshed sieve to make the raspberry vinegar, recipe here, making the raspberries much easier on the digestion. Raspberries are loaded with Vitamin C and Flavanoids as well as other vitamins. This is a fresh, delicious salad dressing with an extraordinary color. It has good fat and lots of flavor! You will really enjoy this delicious dressing on a variety of salads!

Real Raspberry Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Homemade Raspberry Wine Vinegar (recipe here)

1/4 Cup Clear Honey

2 teaspoons Djon Mustard (garlic free such as Annie’s)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

Directions:

In a shaker (I use these and love them!) add all the dressing ingredients and shake well! Store in refrigerator. Makes 1 cup of dressing.

Real Raspberry Vinaigrette

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Cranberry Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This chicken is moist and juicy! I don’t know about you, but I pretty much like stuffed anything, because it usually means extra flavor and deliciousness. I developed this recipe recently because boneless chicken breasts can be juicy and flavorful when done right, and anything but boring! I hope you try these, they are nutritious and so festive!

Cranberry Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breasts

You can prep these up to a day in advance and store them in the refrigerator for a super fast dinner. I served them with a tarragon cream sauce, but they are great without it. The sauce bumps it up to extra fancy.

Cranberry Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

Filling:

6 Dried Apricots, unsulphured organic is best

1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries, sweetened with juice

1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds

2 Tablespoons Sunflower Seed Butter or Almond Butter, no sugar added

2 Scallions, green tops only, thinly sliced

1 Teaspoon Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

1/4 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Coating:

1 Egg

3/4 Cup Almond Flour, fine

Himalayan Pink Salt

Black Pepper

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Directions:

Soak the dried apricots 30 minutes in very hot water to soften. Set aside and while they are soaking gather the rest of your ingredients. In a small blender or food processor, puree the apricots after draining off the soaking water. Add Sunflower Seed Butter, Salt, Pepper and Lemon Juice and fully incorporate. Stir in by hand the cranberries, sliced almonds and scallions.

Slice your boneless chicken breasts in the center to make a pocket for stuffing, but don’t slice all the way through. Like this:

Cranberry Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Once they are stuffed, you are ready to coat them. It is simple. Crack the egg into a shallow dish, put the almond flour in another shallow dish, and dip the chicken into the egg on both sides, then roll in the almond flour. Repeat for all four breasts. Then season them with salt and pepper as you would like. You can at this point cover then and refrigerate until you are ready to cook them.

Pre-heat your oven 375º degrees. Heat an oven proof pan over medium high heat on your stove top and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When oil is hot, add the chicken breasts and brown on both sides. This will take approximately 3 minutes a side. After browning, they will not be completely cooked. Slide your oven proof pan with the chicken into the pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked all the way through, 365º degrees in the center.

Cranberry Almond Stuffed Chicken Breasts Ready for the Oven

Serve with Tarragon Sauce found here. (optional)

Eat Your Nutrients!

Tarragon Cream Sauce

Here is a quick and easy cream sauce that pairs nicely with chicken or vegetables.

It is dairy free! It is shown here with my Cranberry Apricot Stuffed Chicken Breasts.

Tarragon Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Dry White Wine

1/2 Cup Full Fat Coconut Milk, no additives

1 Teaspoon Yellow Mustard

1 Teaspoon Horseradish, no sugar added

1 Teaspoon Dried Tarragon

1/2 Teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Simmer all the ingredients until reduced by half! That’s it, and it is a delicious, dairy free, accompaniment to chicken or vegetables.

Eat Your Nutrients!

Real Pumpkin Spice Creamer Cups

Real Pumpkin Spice Beverage Flavor Drop-Ins

Real Pumpkin Spice Creamer Drop-In Cups

One of the best Fall traditions is pumpkins! There has been a lot in the media lately about some of the pumpkin spice beverages out there and the less than healthy ingredients they contain, even though the are deliciously addictive. I have a figure friendly, healthy, real food solution to a pumpkin spice beverage craving that will leave you feeling great with no sugar crashes or slumps.

These individual Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamers are only 65 calories, contain all natural ingredients, including real pumpkin, and are frozen individually for convenience and freshness. The recipe makes twelve. They have a true, delicious pumpkin spice flavor, are dairy free, and sweetened with just 1/2 teaspoon of honey per serving. If you like yours sweeter, you can add more. You also get 15% of your RDA of vitamin A from the real pumpkin each beverage contains along with beneficial spices. You can use these all-in-one flavor drop-ins creamers for coffee, lattes, tea or steamers.

Real Pumpkin Spice Matcha Latte

Real Pumpkin Spice Individual Portion Creamer

Recipe Ingredients:

Real Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer Cups

1 1/2 Cups Canned Pumpkin (this one is organic and SCD Diet legal)

1 1/2 Cups of Full Fat Coconut Milk, room temperature (this is my favorite and SCD Diet Legal)

3 Tablespoons of Pure Vanilla Extract

2 Tablespoons Clear Honey, warmed in the microwave more or less to taste (you can substitute Maple Syrup)

1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon

1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Allspice

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

Line a muffin pan with good quality natural unbleached muffin papers. They have a non-stick coating on the inside for easy removal. Add your pumpkin to a medium mixing bowl. Whisk the warmed honey into the pumpkin. I like mine just slightly sweetened. You can add more or less honey depending on your taste. Whisk in the room temperature coconut milk and vanilla extract. Finally, whisk in all your spices. Using a level Muffin size scoop or a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop 1/4 cup of the pumpkin beverage drop-ins mixture into each muffin cup. Level by tapping the bottom of the pan on the counter top to flatten and place the pan in the freezer until they are frozen solid. After they are frozen, remove them from the muffin pan and store in a gallon zip bag in the freezer. When you need a pumpkin spice beverage, take one serving from the freezer and add it to your coffee, latte, tea or steamer. It is good to have the beverage slightly hotter than normal because the pumpkin spice drop-in is frozen. I like to put everything in a shaker and shake it up then pour it into a mug, but you could also use a whisk in your mug. This is the shaker I use (It is Awesome to get a frothy beverage!)

I hope you are enjoying Fall and pumpkin season!!! I look forward to having one of these every day!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Brazilian Cranberry Fig Bites

I love little energy bites when I am on the go, in a hurry, or after an afternoon workout. The pace seems to always pick up when the school year starts doesn’t it? Summer has been relaxed and more laid back with the schedules, but now we are watching the clock more and checking our daily calenders. Am I the only one?

These little bites are a delicious, healthy snack that is portable. The brazil nuts add selenium which good quantities of vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals, and figs are full of nutrients and fiber, and just taste wonderful! The tart dried cranberries are lower in sugar than other dried fruits and give the bites a sweet tangy burst of flavor. (use dried cranberries sweetened with apple juice.)

You can make these in your oven or a food dehydrator. They are easy and a delicious, healthy addition to your snack rotation that might save you time and your sanity when you are on the run.

Brazilian Cranberry Fig Bites

Ingredients:

12 Dried Figs (soaked in hot water 30 minutes)

1 Cup Raw Pecans

1 Cup Raw Brazil Nuts

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Coconut

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

1/4 Cup Clear Honey

1/4 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt

1 Teaspoon Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Directions: Soak your figs submerged in very hot water for 30 minutes to soften. Add them to a food processor with the pecans, brazil nuts and coconut and pulse until they are a fine consistency. Add remaining ingredients to the food processor and pulse again until it is combined and a sticky consistency that holds together. Scoop into tablespoon sized mounds. (I used a tablespoon cookie scoop, but you could also use a spoon) and roll into balls, then flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Place on your dehydrator trays or on a parchment lined cookie sheet if you are baking.

Dehydrate for 18 hours at 105º degrees or bake in your oven at 250º degrees for 45 minutes.

I like to individually package them in twos so we can grab them and go.

Enjoy these! They are so good and good for you!