Paleo Almond Flour Biscuits

Say what?  Yup, that's right, grain-free biscuits.  These are Paleo friendly biscuits!  I was quite skeptical at first because, well I'm from South Carolina.  This Southern girl can make a rockin' biscuit!  I've  been making biscuits for years.  I thought this would be dense and terrible.  Surprisingly, it was really tasty!  I'd make this again for sure.  It is light and fluffy.  A bit crumbly but I mean come on, it's grain-free!  A definite must try for anyone doing Paleo or steering clear of dairy and/or grains.  

Oh and this is the last post I'm going to put the word Paleo in the title.  I think I've made enough Paleo recipes lately to stop saying it in the title and just label it and mention it here.  Until otherwise noted, I'm a Paleo girl and hope to stay that way. 

The original recipe is from Food Renegade. 

Grain-Free Biscuits
Yield: 4 breakfast sandwiches

1 cup almond flour
4 egg whites
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

In a mixer (or with a fork) combine the coconut oil and almond flour until you have little broken up, pea-sized bits of butter distributed into the flour.  Depending on the temperature, your coconut oil may just melt in and mix without it being pea sized.  Add the egg whites, salt, and baking powder. Mix to combine. If the batter doesn’t seem stiff enough to retain its shape while baking, add more almond flour a little at a time until it does. (Based on the comments below, this step is essential. Different almond flours are more absorbent than others.) The original recipe calls for 1 cup of almond flour so I suggest starting with that.  I used more like 1 1/2 cups when I made the recipe.  Scoop the batter into 4 even portions and place onto a greased or silicone-lined baking sheet. The dough should be scoopable by spoon but not an actual hands on type of dough.  Bake at 350F for about 20-22 minutes, until slightly golden.

(**Note - These biscuits are roughly 280 calories a piece)

Herbed Pork Tenderloin - Paleo

So I was going to make chicken for dinner.  I ran to the store to grab some and they were out.  I wasn't in the mood for red meat so I grabbed a pork tenderloin and had no thoughts on what I was going to do with it.  It was 4:00 and I was standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do with this meat since I had so little time to make something.  I whipped this up, let it rest for 30 minutes and cooked it.  It was AMAZING!  My entire family loved it, and asked that I make it again for them.  It was super simple and really pretty quick and best part was it fit my new diet guidelines.

Herbed Pork Tenderloin

1 3lb. pork tenderloin, sliced thinly

Marinade-
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. lemon peel (dried)
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. thyme 

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, it'll be a bit thicker than a paste but not as runny as most marinades. Pour over pork in a ziplock bag and massage into meat until all is covered.  Set aside for about 30 minutes.  

1 tbsp. olive oil 
1 cup chicken stock
3 cloves minced garlic
Salt

Add remaining 1 tbsp. olive oil to a medium-high heat pan.  Toss in the pork and get all pieces nice and brown.  Once cooked just about all the way through turn heat down to a medium temperature and toss all the minced garlic into the pan with the pork and allow to sautee until just golden.  Salt your pork to taste. Remove  pork from pan with a slitted spoon allowing most of the garlic to remain in the pan to be a part of the sauce but you don't need to actually brush it off the pork.  Set pork aside.  Add in the 1 cup of chicken stock to the pan.  Allow to cook with the garlic a minute and it also will get all the herbed marinade spices left in the pan into the sauce.   Serve sauce like gravy for the pork.

*Note - Because of my current diet I have eliminated all grains from my diet and so I am not thickening my sauce with butter or flour.  You are welcome to use flour to make a proper gravy if you wish.    

Spicy Italian Sausage - Paleo

-Hmmm, not sure what is wrong with the color background on here, will have to fix that later!

So I can't eat regular sausage anymore because of my new diet.  It has added sugar and nitrates which are a big no-no.  So since I can't live without sausage I decided to make my own.  My husband and I looked at a ton of recipes and found bits and pieces from different ones we decided to use to come up with our own sausage recipe.  I use lean pork with vinegar and spices and it is absolutely divine.  I could eat this all day and all night.  I will honestly never buy sausage again.  I make this in big batches and freeze them in logs like the ones you buy in the store.  That way I always have sausage on hand.  Since I'm unsure of the fat content in the ground pork at my grocery store I buy a pork tenderloin and grind it myself then I know it is a lean meat.  I bet this would be really good with ground turkey as well.   

Spicy Italian Sausage 

1lb lean ground pork
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. salt
2 minced garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1-tbsp. fennel seed
1/8-tsp. crushed chili peppers
1-tbsp. paprika

Combine all ingredients and allow to rest at least 30 minutes before cooking.  Or roll into logs in plastic wrap and freeze for later use.  

Pumpkin Almond Flour Waffles - Paleo

My kids really aren't on board with the no grains thing in my house even though my husband actually finally is interested in a better diet in our house.  So to help my kids get on board without feeling deprived I made them these Pumpkin Almond Flour Waffles.  They were really good.  My kids liked them, though my daughter kept telling me she was sure I put nuts in her waffles and she doesn't like nuts, she still ate 3 of them.  I'm not sure yet how well these freeze and reheat but will find out soon.  I doubled the original recipe because my family tends to eat alot!  I tasted mine and immediately thought of how awesome these would be with fresh berries.  This is a recipe I'll definitely be making again for my kids.   

I found the original recipe at PaleOMG.  

Pumpkin Almond Flour Waffles

1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 cup almond flour
1/3 cup canned coconut milk
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 tablespoon maple syrup
4 eggs, whisked
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Heat up your waffle iron.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together coconut milk, eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Then add the rest of the dry ingredients and pumpkin and mix together. Add a bit more coconut milk, if needed. The batter should be runny but have a bit of thickness to it.   Ladle into your waffle maker. Be careful, they expand a bit. Cook until done.  I found they were a bit fragile removing them from the waffle iron so just be careful with them.  

Paleo Pizza Crust

I'm really not overly sure how many times I've attempt to do the Paleo diet and failed but yet again my husband and I have decided to try.  It is such a restrictive diet from the American "normal" diet that it is a bit difficult to adjust to.  BUT I've already given up dairy this year and I eat almost no bread or grains anymore with the exception of oats so I feel I'm better prepared to try this again.  It is how I would like to eat.  Lots of protein, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruit.  You cannot have grains, so no flour, no corn, no oats.  No beans.  Nothing processed.  No sugar.  Sounds super healthy and I need to strive to eat better.  My kids LOVE pizza!!

This to me was like eating a pizza on top of a unsweetened, garlic flavored pancake.  I need it to be a bit thinner and more crisp for me to really get on board with it but it definitely has potential.  I just need to work with it a bit more to make it something more fitting for me.  My kids both loved it.  My ridiculously picky daughter ate 3 mini pizzas.  They ate it without any complaint.  We made homemade Paleo sausage to top our super veggie pizza which was amazing.  Granted after I made this I realized I think bell peppers are a nightshade vegetable and I've got to read up on that a bit but I don't think I'm suppose to be eating those, oops. 

Just to make things easier I opted to cook these on a griddle first (like pancakes) for easier flipping and so everyone could have there own mini pizzas then we topped them and baked them in the oven. 

Found the original recipe here - Caveman Strong.  We changed a few things from the original recipe.


Paleo Pizza Crust
 
3 eggs
1/2 cup of coconut flour
1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp. of garlic powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. dried basil
1 crushed/minced garlic clove
 
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Prep cookie sheet or pizza pan by covering it with parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan.  Brush with coconut oil or olive oil to prevent sticking.

Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined.  Start pouring on your griddle immediately as the batter will thicken as time goes on. This will be more like a batter….not so much dough.  After 2-3 minutes flip the pancake sized mini pizza crusts and place finished ones on the baking sheet.  Bake an additional 6-10 minutes until toppings are heated through.  

You can pour the entire batter into any shape or size you want and bake for 20 minutes then flip in the oven (use parchment paper to prevent sticking) if you prefer to use that method iinstead of the griddle.  

Chicken & Kale Soup

I'm trying to get away from bread and grains so am struggling to come up with lunch ideas that are quick, easy and not just a meal replacement shake.  Sometimes I want food, not a shake.  So I've started making big batches of soup and keeping it in the fridge to reheat as needed.  This is one of my current favorites.  It's healthy and absolutely delicious!  I won't lie that I kinda wish I had a big bowl on the table with some sort of crunchy bread to eat with it but thus far I have resisted the urge to bake it.  I make homemade chicken stock with this recipe because I think it makes it that much better.  But you certainly can just skip over the entire chicken stock part and go to the soup making part and just use a store bought rotisserie chicken instead.  I'll tell you my little cheat to make my chicken stock extra super amazing and awesome.  Instead of all water with my chicken and vegetables I add in a good quality pre-made chicken stock.   

Chicken & Kale Soup

1 whole chicken, shredded
2 boxes of (good quality) chicken stock (or recipe below for homemade stock)
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 large bunch of kale, chopped with middle stem removed

Add chicken stock to a large stock pot.  Shred the chicken, chop the vegetables and add it all into the stockpot.  Simmer on a medium-low for about 20-30 minutes or until carrots are nice and tender. 

Homemade Chicken Stock

1 whole chicken
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs thyme
small handful of black peppercorns
1 head garlic, split through the equator
2 tablespoons salt
3 rough chopped whole carrots
2 rough chopped stalks celery
1 rough chopped onion

4 c. (good quality or toss in a bullion cube) chicken stock

4 c. Water  (roughly)

Add everything into a stockpot and simmer on a medium heat for 2-3 hours until chicken falls off the bones and stock tastes awesome.  Make sure your liquid comes to the top of the chicken but doesn't have to cover it completely.  Strain the stock before using.  

Amish Friendship Bread

One of my closest friends here in Japan gave me this friendship bread.  I've never had it before and never heard of it before but the idea of it is really a cute idea.  You make a starter and it has to sit for 10 days.  You add something to it on day 5 and day 10 then you split it into 4 batches.  You keep one batch and then you remove 1 cup and place it into three separate containers that you then give to your friends with the instructions for them to keep the starter and eventually end with bread while they then do the same thing and give three of their friends a starter.  It think it has been a while since making bread here in my house so everyone was very excited.  It certainly didn't disappoint either.  It was really tasty.  It has the texture and density much like a banana bread but with cinnamon instead. The original recipe claims that you cannot use anything metal and must use plastic or wooden utensils and a plastic or glass container/bowl when making this so not sure how true it is but passing that tid bit on as well. 

Amish Friendship Bread Starter:

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F)

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.  In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.  Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

For the next 10 days handle starter according to the instructions for Amish Friendship Bread below.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)
Day 2 - stir
Day 3 - stir
Day 4 - stir
Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.
Day 6 - stir
Day 7 - stir
Day 8 - stir
Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread. After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
(**optional) 1 cup nuts/1 cup of raisins

Using a wooden spoon beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nut. Grease a loaf pan with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.  Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick and if it comes out clean it is done.  Otherwise bake an additional 10-15 minutes until done.  If it starts getting too brown while cooking cover with aluminum foil and finish baking. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pan. Makes 1 large loaf of Amish Friendship Bread.