Pumpkin Walnut Pancakes

Saturday is pancake day here at the Inn. I might want to skip it some days, which I did this last Saturday, but I always have to make it up to the kids on another day...I have to say, I don't really mind because they are so great to eat "pottage" the other six days of the week.

I posted an almond flour and avocado pancake recipe a short time ago, and it is really good, but it takes an extra step to get them on the table since I am too cheap don't buy preground almond flour. So for today, I decided to try this pumpkin recipe. Let me know if you try it and what you think about it!

These don't look anything like their gluten filled, no nutrient pancake cousins, but I am okay with that. These are made with real food, they won't spike your blood sugar and the flavor is really good!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Found this in the Practical Paleo cookbook I got for my birthday and tried them this am, with my changes, of course! Pretty good!

Makes 19 pancakes +/-

Preheat griddle to 325 degrees

8 eggs, whisked

1 1/2 C canned pumpkin

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 Tbsp good maple sryup (Grade B is best...has LOTS of great minerals in it)

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp powdered ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

4 Tbsp good butter

1/2 cup finely ground walnuts (optional)

Whisk eggs with pumpkin, vanilla and syrup. Then whisk in dry ingredients, and finally stir in the nuts if you are going to use them.

This batter is pretty thin, so don't be surprised! I used a 1/4 C measuring cup to ladle the mixture onto the griddle.

Melt a little butter on the griddle, then use the measuring cup to pour batter onto hot griddle. Make sure to keep them small and easy to flip, since they are just a bit fragile. Flip when you see bubbles start to form on the top of the pancake. Cook till center is set.

Serve with additional butter and fresh maple syrup.

Totally delish, and perfect for fall!

Creamy Chicken Soup over Cauliflower 'Rice'

You know what I just realized? Since I can't eat grain anymore, I don't need a toaster. And my blog is named after my beautiful red toaster which languishes in my cabinet, alone and neglected...what to do, what to do...

Oh, well, I digress.

We are new on this Paleo food journey and after reading some research on Adrenal Fatigue, I discovered that it could take two years to get myself back to normal! Wow. That's a long time with no grain. But I am committed for the long haul, and frankly, I have been enjoying trying all these new foods (or rather new ways of preparing old foods). Which leads me to today.

At two o'clock I realized that there were no dinner plans in my near future and I better get a move on. I had my sights set on reorganizing and cleaning out the pantry and kitchen, but first I needed to get dinner going or there was going to be some serious caterwauling going on around here. I grabbed a recipe I had recently copied from, well, I don't really know WHERE I got this one from, but I did change it (of course) so it is not a direct copy (sorry)! This one is quick and easy and sure to satisfy those empty tummies!


Creamy Chicken Stew

3-4 chicken breasts (frozen ok),
2 T Italian Seasoning (it seems like I actually used 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil and 1 tsp parsley)
1 T basil
2 cloves garlic - pressed
1 can whole-fat coconut milk
2 cups bone broth (or really good chicken broth)
1/2 c white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Now here is the easy part! Mix together everything but the chicken in the crockpot. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cook on high 3-4 hours. Oila! Go clean out your pantry, or climb Mt. Washmore. Or take the kids for a bike ride...the sky is the limit! The house will smell great, and everyone will think you spent hours cooking! I love it when it works!

About 20 minutes before you want to eat you will want to toss together this quick faux rice to put under your tasty chicken. I had heard about "cauliflower rice" but was honestly pretty skeptical. I mean really, how can you make cauliflower taste like rice?!? I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a try and tell me what you think!

The only changes I made were to put my riced cauliflower in a large bowl, and season it there, before I put it in the hot pan. I used salt, lots of dried thyme (since there is thyme in the chicken), garlic powder and onion powder.

Once you have the cauliflower steaming, remove the chicken from the crockpot and shred. When everything is ready, it goes together like this: Into your bowl you layer the 'rice', then shredded chicken and then put broth over the top. Your family will rave and you will sit back and admire your organized kitchen and the smiling faces of your loved ones, and chalk one up for the Crockpot Momma.

Now, there is one little thing you should know about. If you make this with a box of chicken broth, your tastebuds are not going to sing. You really need to put together a batch of bone broth which has so much more flavor and depth. You basically do that by taking a chicken carcass or two and cooking them 12-24 hours with onions, garlic, celery, whole peppercorns and lots of water. You can find out more by doing a google search for bone broth. And to be fully transparent, my two cups of bone broth were actually left over from a Chicken Marsala I did a few weeks ago, which had the wine in it, so it had cooked down really well. I do believe it added even another layer of flavor to our soup tonight.

Imagination...

Research in food always gets my brain going...and you just never know what might come out of the pan!

Right now I am looking at the Paleo/Primal ideas of food. Basic premise: eat good meat, good fats, lots of veggies, minimal fruit and dairy. Doing this keeps your blood sugar balanced, and keeps you away from inflammatory foods, which can wreak havoc in your body. As happens with most "diets", you have the full range of investment, from the radical, "all out" folks, to the people who just take everything as a suggestion.

As I was talking to a friend last night about these ideas she told me about a cool cookbook that really has my brain stewing. It is called Well Fed, and I think it may be my new favorite cookbook!

What I think I am really going to love, is the author's idea of doing some big prep on Sundays, to make meal prep during the week go so much more easily. Even though today's recipe has nothing to do with her book, I will give the author Melissa Joulwan the credit for our yummy dinner!

It all started with mushrooms. Mushrooms and broccoli. Except the broccoli ended up back in the fridge, a casualty of my other favorite 'cookbook', The Flavor Bible. I had this idea to saute mushrooms a la Julia Child, in coconut oil. We had some leftover roasted chicken and had just purchased some ginger today as well as some asparagus, so I looked both of those up in my Flavor Bible and it all came together like this:

Chicken with 'Shrooms and Asparagus

5-6 mushrooms, peeled and sliced
2-3 Tbsp coconut oil
butter - skip this if you are dairy free
salt and pepper
1 bunch baby asparagus (the big ones are too tough), ends chopped off and cut in half
thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and grated fine
leftover roasted chicken, chopped (I used about 2 cups)
salt and pepper

* Heat pan to medium heat.
* Add coconut oil, and let melt.
* Add mushrooms in one layer. Saute gently, then flip and cook on other side (I salted mushrooms and added a few tsp of butter here). This will give you beautifully golden mushrooms...a la Julia Child!
* Remove mushrooms from pan, and return pan to burner.
* Add a little more coconut oil/butter and bring to temp. Add asparagus and a little salt. Stirring and tossing til cooked al dente.
* While asparagus is cooking, chop chicken and grate ginger. Add chicken to the pan.
* Return mushrooms to pan.
* When chicken is warmed through, add ginger and toss all ingredients together. Check salt and pepper and adjust accordingly.

I dished this yummy concoction onto our plates, and topped it with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan. It added a nice tang, and truthfully, I thought it might encourage the kids to dig in if they saw cheese on top! They are pretty brave eaters, but the idea of mushrooms was throwing the boys off.

Verdict: They LOVED it! Even AJ was asking for more! It fed four of us, and they had some leftover limas on the side (a casualty of cooking on the fly...the limas were already warming as I created the asparagus dish, so I went ahead and served them anyway). When I make this again for all of us, I will probably double it, or perhaps serve it with a salad.

Let me know how you like it, and if you make any modifications!

Pizza Bread...Yum!

I got a hankering for something savory...so I headed to the kitchen to play about a bit. I started out with my version of Karina's Focacia bread, and then the fun began! This might just become a family favorite! This is gluten free, and can be egg-free if you use the flax seed/hot water substitution, and dairy free if you leave out the cheese. The basic recipe is hands down my favorite bread ever!

Pizza Bread

Grease and corn flour a large iron skillet or 9" cake pan. Preheat oven to 170 degrees

Whisk together these dry ingredients:

1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup millet flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 Tbsp dry minced onion
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Add in:
1 egg
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/3 cups plus 2 T HOT water
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Beat to mix, then scrape down and turn mixer to high. Beat til smooth, about 5 minutes. Add in 2/3 cup Feta cheese, 1/2 cup chopped pepperoni and stir through dough with spatula. Dough will be thick; scrape into prepared pan then take two forks and spread dough evenly into pan. Sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt.

Put in warmed oven to raise for 25 minutes. Don't take out of oven, and turn temp to 400 degrees. Let bake for 25 minutes once oven reaches temp or till bread sounds hollow when you tap it.



Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.

You could add just about anything to this bread, as long as it is not wet..I am thinking well drained sausage, sauteed mushrooms, etc.

Link to Karina's Focaccia: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/03/gluten-free-focaccia-recipe-with-garlic.html