Coconut Flour Banana Pancakes with Fresh wild blackberry smash topping

We love breakfast in our house. It might actually be one of our favorite meals of the day. After a long (well not that long we DO have a 9 month old) sleep we wake up ready for some grub. Lately, I've been honing my coconut flour pancake recipe, but actually it's really really easy to make. Here goes:

Heat a griddle. No grease.
Then, in a bowl mix 2 eggs, a healthy dash of cinnamon, 1/2 smashed banana (I just fork smash mine so there are some bigger bits of banana in the final product), a pinch (but make it a good one) of dried/dessicated unsweetened coconut (use sweetened if you prefer), and 1.5 tbsp of coconut flour. Mix until it begins to thicken and then let sit for about 1-5 minutes. The longer you let it sit the thicker and more "doughy" it will get, which will make less of a pancake and more of a griddled muffin(ish) thingy. Then pour spoonfuls onto the griddle. About 2-3 minutes per side. I top mine with fresh fruit smash. We happen to have some wild fresh picked blackberries and so that's what we've been using this week. I've used banana, raspberry, strawberry, or just gone plain in the past.

Variations of the pancake. One morning I was mixing the ingredients for these and realized that we only had one banana, one green banana...Ew! So I started thinking about what else I could use: APPLESAUCE. But, alas, we had none. But we do have a nuclear holocaust supply of baby foods. So I tried that. First I tried apples and bananas. Delicious. Then I tried pears and raspberries. Delicious. Sweet potato. Delicious. Squash. Delicious. Pumpkin. I think you see where this is going. I use only organic baby foods that consist of just crushed fruit and a touch of juice. It adds a very nice variation to an otherwise pretty boring dish.

I hope you try and enjoy these!

Salmon, Eggs, and Salad

Wonderful breakfast of pan-seared wild caught Atlantic salmon, 2 eggs, and a small side salad. Oh, and some green tea to top it off. Everything is seasoned fairly bland: a little salt and pepper on the salmon, cooked in butter and olive oil and garlic powder on the salad.

Enjoy!

Steak, Eggs & 6 grams of Carbohydrates!

Steak: Leftover filet mignon, cooked medium rare, as last nights dinner - it makes for a wonderful accompaniment to breakfast.

Egg Scramble: whisk together 2-4 eggs (I used 2 eggs + an egg white). If you want to add a little sweetness to your eggs add a splash of coconut milk, seriously, it's actually pretty good.

Serve with a side of steamed spinach.

Pepper and Mushroom Scramble with bacon and salad

Breakfast for dinner, it just never gets old does it?

In a skillet brown some chopped garlic and onion in a splash of grapeseed oil. When the garlic and onion begin to clarify add chopped mushrooms and green bell pepper. Cook for another 5-7 minutes or so, until peppers soften. While all that's going on have your bacon cooking away. Add about 1 cup of Egg Beaters (or other brand of egg substitute) and stir frequently. You do not want the egg to stick to the pan. as your are mixing in the eggs add some spices: I added steak seasoning. When finished serve topped with homemade tomato and jalapeno salsa (chopped tomato, garlic, ground pepper and sliced jalapeno) and bacon on side. We also served this up with a salad of mixed greens, fresh fruit - strawberries and figs, and chopped walnuts. I also sprinkled some ground flaxseed on top and ground pepper.

Poached Egg & Bacon-Wrapped Fillet Mignon on a Sweet Potato Pancake

Still inspired by my trip to IKEA (i.e. Swedish cuisine-ish), I thought I'd try to change up my breakfast. I have to admit, this turned out really good and was not nearly as difficult or time-consuming as I thought it was going to be. 

Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. 

Paleo Sweet Potato Pancake: Mix almond and walnut meal with the meat (no skin) of 1 small cooked sweet potato, and 2 eggs. Mix until lit forms a batter. Spoon batter onto hot skillet. Makes 4 small or 3 relatively large sweet potato pancakes. 

Bacon-wrapped Fillet Mignon: OK, I cheated here. The supermarket had a sale on Fillets so I bought a few extra and grilled them up for dinner a few nights ago. This was a leftover. :-) However, it could be pan grilled or grilled in about 10 minutes (medium rare), 5 minutes per side. 

Poached Egg: Bring a small pot of water to a boil, then reduce the heat so it's just on the verge of boiling. Add a dash of salt and a few drops of vinegar. Crack egg into a ramekin and then pour into water or crack directly into the water. Allow to cook for about 4-6 minutes, depending on the size of the egg. 

To serve place the fillet on top of the pancake and place the egg on top of the fillet. Pierce the yolk just a little so that some runs down on the fillet and pancake and then add a few chopped spring onions. 

Delicious new breakfast!

Enjoy!

Salmon Burgers, Broccoli Soup, and Jicama-Sw. Potato Fries

Ok tonight i had to pull out the stops, because my mother-in-law is here and I cooked. I made homemade salmon burgers, with. Some broccoli soup, and a side of jicama and sweet potato fries. here's how to do it.

Start with the soup, because the longer it simmers the better it tastes. In a large pot, brown some chopped garlic and onion (with some seasoning, like pepper and cayenne) in olive oil. Once brown, add chopped broccoli, about 2-3 medium sized broccoli crowns per person you are feeding. Add 2-3 cups of water or vegetable broth. Cook until the broccoli is soft, it can be easily mashed with a fork. Once it can be ashes, remove it form the heat and blend it. Once al the broccoli is blended place back in the original pot, stir very well and add any additional seasoning you might like. Serve topped with some fresh chopped spring onions and pine nuts. I make my topping a little nice by mixing the spring onions and pines nuts in olive oil with fresh ground black pepper.

Now, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice one large sweet potato and one jicama into think fries. Lightly coat with olive oil and season to. Your liking. I used garlic powder and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes, or until crispy on the outside. Turn a few times while cooking. i tend to flip and push mine around about every 120 minutes.

Salmon burgers. Ok this was fun. In. Food processor, or a Magic Bullet (which is what I use) blend 6 ounces of wild caught skinless salmon fillet with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and one free range wild fed egg. Then blend the rest of the salmon by itself (without egg or lemon). I used 1.5 pounds of salmon. Mix all the ground salmon together and make into Patties as you Would a beef burger. I made sure my hands were coated in some flaxseed-olive oil mix so that it would not stick to my hands, or the grill. These go last. They take about 5 minutes on each side (6 ounce salmon burger patties). While that's a cooking toss a few slices of Paleo bread in the toaster to get crispy. Also, this is the time to make the Omega-3 Cajun aioli. It's really easy to make the aioli. Blend 1 egg (preferably free range grass fed) with mustard powder, a squeeze of lemon juice (fresh), and some oil. Once the mixture starts to. Thicken up - and you will need to add a lot of oil and blend for a few minutes to make it whipped in texture, add some cajun seasoning. It's a touch spicy and wonderful on the burgers.

Serve with a smearing of the aioli on the toasted Paleo bread slice. We also spread some extra aioli on top of our burgers, soup in a small. Side bowl, and fries on the side. You can serve the fries with a little mustard, homemade ketchup, or dip in the aioli, if you feel the need. I also sprinkled the fries with some parley flakes.

This was a pretty good dinner, if I say so myself. It rounds out a low-carb, high-protein, high fat meal. But, all the fat is good fat, with the mixture of the flaxseed oil & salmon it ales for a good high Omega-3 meal.

My mother-in-law had a great idea. Instead of serving with soup, which was a bit much food, serve with a nice slaw of some sort. Next time i will make either a cole slaw, broccoli slaw, or maybe even try a slaw with some Jicama or radishes.

Enjoy!

Breakfast, it does a body good!

Vegetable Omelet & Paleo Waffles

So I've already posted a ton of times about what I think is a great breakfast, but as a refresher I thought I would post again. I've had several questions lately about what to eat for breakfast: what can I eat with high protein, what can I eat if I am Zone-Paleo, or generally asked about ideas for what to eat for breakfast. Well, I have a few. The picture above is about my everyday example, but there are several others as well. 

First, if you are in a rush then I would suggest grabbing a bowl of Paleo Crunch with coconut milk. If you want to up the protein then sprinkle some whey protein on there and voila, a great, high protein, high fat, tasty as hell, breakfast that should easily hold you for a few hours, get you through a workout, or just satisfy your need to feed first thing in the am!

If you aren't in a rush then you can make a "proper" Paleo breakfast. Here's what I have about every morning (see Pic). 2 eggs - either in an omelet with some veggies or simply sunny side with a side of steamed vegetables (think spinach or broccoli), or a side salad. I also have a few Paleo waffles. They're really easy to make and round out a 4 block Zone-Paleo breakfast, if you care about such stuff. Here's the recipe, again... LOL

Whisk two eggs (preferably from free-range Omega-3 enriched chickens). Whisk in 1/3-1/2 a ripe banana (the riper the better for taste and cooking). Add almond flour to this mix. I make my own almond/nut flour by grinding up about 12-15 almonds, 2-3 pecans and a lot of cinnamon. Mix this into the egg and banana mixture. That's forms the base of your waffle batter. (Note: It can also be used as a pancake batter, although you'd probably want to add more banana or nut flour to make it a bit thicker for pancakes). To the batter you can add just about anything you like: I tend to add crushed walnuts or some dried fruit such as raisins, cranberries, blueberries, etc.)  One thing to remember about the waffles, these are not regular waffles so when your waffle iron says they are done: that light blinks or the iron makes a ding indicating it's time to take the waffles off the iron, it's not time to take the Paleo waffles off. I leave mine on for about another 1-2 minutes. That way they don't stick to the iron and you won't be left without that part of your breakfast. 

The eggs, omelet or veggies & two eggs on the side, and waffles (maybe a bit of fruit if you fancy it) rounds out to about a: 4 Protein, 4-8 Fat, and 1-3 Carb blocked meal. Perfect way to start your day, if you ask me. 

So, enjoy a good hearty Paleo breakfast. I would bet that you will feel better all day long.