Category Archives: Dairy and Soy Free

Paleo Apple Muffins with Steusel Topping

blog-paleo-apple-streusel-gluten-free-muffins-1 Maya had a play date the other day, and I promised them we could make something. I’ve been wanting to try a healthier apple muffin, and these turned out so good!! You could leave out the walnuts for a nut free option for school!
So moist and yummy!! blog-paleo-apple-streusel-gluten-free-muffins-5

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins or 24 minis)

2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice or 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
4 medjul dates pitted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
2 small apples, diced or about 1 1/2 cups

For the streusel-

1/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp coconut flour
1 Tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Line muffin cups with muffin liners.
First, prepare the streusel topping by mixing everything together, except for the pecans, in a small bowl. Add the pecans and stir until well combined. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix together the dry muffins ingredients (almond flour through nutmeg).
In a large bowl, mix together the wet muffins ingredients (eggs through Almond Milk).
Add the dry mix to the wet and stir just until combined! Fold in the apples.
Pour 1/3 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Sprinkle the streusel on top.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and for another 8 – 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Mini muffins only needed 8 more minutes but larger muffins may need up to 15.
Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.
These are super moist and need to be kept refrigerated in an airtight container after the first 24 hours.

Recipe adapted from Texanerin Baking.

Enjoy!

Watermelon Mint Infused Water

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I’ve been wanting to try more infused waters lately. In my mind, they are a lot of work, but really…they aren’t!

I carved up a watermelon for the 4th of July, and we had some pieces left over in the fridge that I didn’t think were going to get eaten. SO…I poured some of the left over juice and a few pieces of watermelon with some mint into a few water bottles.

I mean to let them sit for a day, but… “LIFE”

Two days later, I tried them, and YUM!!! Blog Watermelon Mint Infused Water-1 Maya wasn’t as sure. She was more consumed with getting the watermelon out of the bottom haha 🙂 What you need…

2 cups of Watermelon (depending on how much water you want to infuse!)
1/4 Cup Watermelon juice (I made this after I had cut a watermelon a few days earlier and there was juice at the bottom of the dish. You could also muddle a few pieces if you are doing this all at once.)
5-6 sprigs of mind torn into pieces

What you do…

Put water, watermelon, watermelon juice, and mint into (individual water glasses or a giant water container).
Let it sit overnight….or two 🙂 Then…

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

Salmon Avocado Mango “Tacos” | Paleo // Whole30

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This was a leftover meal from the already ridiculously easy Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg that I made a few weeks ago. I meant to do a follow up post right away, but…

You know….LIFE! Summer has been kicking my arse lately!

In any case! This is a great two-fer meal. Make one and then the other the next day. Isn’t that the mom holy grail???!!

Adjust the measurements as needed! 🙂 Blog Whole30 Paleo Salmon Avocado Mango Lettuce Tacos-1 From the original post (makes both meals!)

Ingredients (Would serve 4)

3 6oz cans of wild Alaskan Salmon
10 grape tomatoes (cut in half)
1 large avocados
1 Mango diced
1/2 and inch slice red onion diced (or a scallion)
1/3 cup diced pickles
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
Head of Butter Lettuce
For garnish and a bit of heat- my favorite…Garlic Hot Sauce

Directions

Drain Salmon, place in large bowl, and break it up.
Dice tomato, avocado, mango, and onions and stir into salmon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Scoop into butter lettuce cups, and pierce with a toothpick and an extra tomato for garnish

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken, Onion, and Pepper Shish Kabobs

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It’s summer, and what screams summer more than grilling?!! Ok, pools, popsicles, all of Esther’s yummy cocktails (!!)….ok, a lot of things scream summer. BUT…grilling. YUM!

I’ve talked many times about my love of grilling. Ok, the EASE of grilling!! It used to intimidate me, but now I LOVE it! I usually do whole chicken breasts, but decided to try and do shish kabobs. SO GOOD! Blog Whole30 Paleo Grilled Chicken Peppers Onions Shish Kabobs-1 Ingredients (varies people you want to feed)

Chicken Breasts (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Bell Peppers-I used red, yellow, and orange (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Large Onion (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Trader Joe’s Every Day Seasoning

What to do

It’s not absolutely necessary, but if you can marinate the chicken a few hours before you’d like to grill, that’s the best. Just put the cubed chicken in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, and grind the Trader Joe’s Every Day Seasoning over it. I honestly had all these ideas of various spices I was going to add, and then (OF COURSE!) was running late and reached for what’s easy, and good!
Do the same for the veggies (not as necessary to have those marinate!)
You can use wooden sticks to spear all the meat and veggies. If you do, make sure you soak the them for a good 10 minutes prior.
Preheat your grill to medium heat.
Evenly spear chicken and veggies until everything is used up.Grill for 7-8 minutes on each side. Oh, and Maya is in this stage where she doesn’t want her picture taken, UNLESS I’m trying to take pictures of something other than her… haha.

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg | Paleo // Whole30

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Anyone else guilty of thinking up recipes about 30 minutes before you need to start making dinner?

There’s benefits to thinking on the fly, but a lot of times I’ll forget what I did. That makes it hard to recreate if it turns out well. I’m also forced to use what I have on hand, as a trip to the supermarket is out… Somehow, they always turn out ok…

This one was more than ok! Light and refreshing, yet totally satisfying with lots of healthy fats!

So glad I wrote it all down 🙂 Blog Paleo Whole30 Salmon Avocado Mango Salad with Soft Boiled Egg -1

Ingredients (Would serve 4)

3 6oz cans of wild Alaskan Salmon
10 grape tomatoes (cut in half)
6-8 eggs (The Huz and I each had two, but Maya only had one)
1 large avocados
1 Mango diced
1/2 and inch slice red onion diced (or a scallion)
1/3 cup diced pickles
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
Head of Butter Lettuce

Directions

Boil water and cook eggs for 7-8 minutes (I accidentally forgot to set the timer and cooked mine a little longer than I had planned) 7 minutes for a runny yolk, 8 for a soft one as pictured. Take off burner and add cold water and ice until they are cool. Very important to have them fully cool, in order to peel properly. Set aside while you make everything else.
Drain Salmon, place in large bowl, and break it up.
Dice tomato, avocado, mango, and onions and stir into salmon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Set butter lettuce in a bowl, and scoop large cub of mixture on top. Top with eggs.

Enjoy!

Next week, I’ll show you how I ate this for lunch the next day! It was almost better!!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Mint NiceCream

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Ever since I successfully made a Healthy Cherry Garcia, I’ve been dying to make a Mint Chocolate Chip version. I’ve had this recipe in my mind for a LONG time, and finally got around to making it last night. I might play around with it a little more, but overall, I think it was pretty good for the first try! Blog Healty Mint Chocolate Chip NiceCream-1 Ingredients (serves 3-4)

3 Frozen Bananas (cut into 2-3 inch pieces prior to freezing)
1/2 cup frozen Avocado (cut into cubes then frozen)
1/3 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
Half of a vanilla bean (slice open and scrape inside out)
1/2 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract
Garnish with dark chocolate chips

Directions

Put frozen bananas, Avocado, almond milk, peppermint extract and inside of vanilla bean in a high speed blender or Cuisinart, and pulse/stop and stir occasionally until it gets to a creamy consistency. You might need to add more almond milk.

Maya loves to push the button 🙂 Blog Healty Mint Chocolate Chip NiceCream-5

That’s it!!

Garnish with the dark chocolate chips (although, omit this if you are strict on certain diets). Blog Healty Mint Chocolate Chip NiceCream-6

Enjoy! We did 😉

Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas | (can be made gluten, dairy, and soy free)

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Chicken enchiladas are pretty simple to make. There are a bunch of different things you can throw in there, and let’s be honest…if it’s drenched in yummy sauce you can’t go wrong. 🙂

When Maya was 5 weeks old, she was diagnosed with a dairy and soy allergy. Since I was breastfeeding…that meant no dairy or soy for me either :(. Dairy isn’t so hard, but finding things that don’t have soy is REALLY HARD. Making dinners was really hard (wait did I say that already?). I had to get creative. Did I mention I have two hungry teenage stepsons? SO…I made this recipe just thinking of things that would taste good that didn’t have dairy and soy.

Maya is still what I’d call “dairy intollerant” (she gets really congested), but we have a little bit here and there and she does ok. The entire recipe only has 1 cup of cottage cheese, and 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese. Adds the perfect amount of creaminess to the enchiladas and a hint of cheese on top.

They are packed with low fat protein and taste delicious! Blog Gluten Free Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas-1 Blog Healthy Black Bean Chicken Enchiladas-7

Ingredients

Bag of Tortillas. I love these, and you could easily sub in any gluten free options.
7-8 chicken breasts (depending on size) Basically each enchilada has almost a full chicken breast!
Large jar or can of enchilada sauce. I go back and forth between red and green.
Small yellow onion
Jar of diced chiles (they aren’t that spicy if you’re worried and add a great flavor and moisture to the mix)
Can of refried beans (I like to use black bean, but use whatever!)
1 C low fat Cottage Cheese (I love the one that has Chive in it!) don’t use for dairy free
1/2 C Shredded cheese don’t use for dairy free
2 TBL of Olive Oil

Directions

Start boiling your water for the chicken. I have NO idea why I boil the chicken! I saw a friend do it once, and then have done it ever since when making enchiladas! It’s easier, doesn’t have any added fat from cooking it with oil, and it requires less attention-WIN.
Add chicken and cook for 10-12 minutes (until they rise to the top) They will cook more in the enchiladas, so you want to make sure you don’t overcook them.
Put olive oil large a non stick pan. Add onions and stir for about 5 min (or until they start to get soft).
Once chicken is cooked, let it sit on a cutting board/plate/bowl. You will want it to cool before you shred it (I’ve burned my fingers WAY too many times) Oh, and note-if you have a dog…don’t let the chicken sit out on the counter. Do I need to tell you what happened when I did that?? 😦
Dump refried beans, chilis, cottage cheese (opt out for dairy free) into the pan with the onions. You can add a little bit of your enchilada sauce to the mixture if you aren’t using the cottage cheese to make it a little moister. Start finger shredding the chicken into this mixture and stir. (or do it all in a big bowl) Maya loved helping stir it all together!
Pour about 1/4 C of enchilada sauce into a 9×13 pan, so they don’t stick.
Scoop about a cup of mixture into each tortilla, roll and place (seam side down) into 9×13 pan. Repeat until all tortillas are filled or you run out of mixture.
Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas and add cheese on top (opt out for dairy free)
Bake at 350 for 20. Garnish with avocado, some plain Greek Yogurt, salsa (or all three!)

Keeping it real…

I actually first wrote this post 2 and a half years ago, but hated the picture I took. The kids were hangry haha. SO, I never posted it. I was super excited to find it in the archives after making it again for dinner on Monday! This time I snapped a few slightly better rushed picture before we ate (oh, to have TIME!!), and had the post all ready to go-WIN!!

Here’s the first picture from 2.5 years ago with green sauce… 🙂 Blog Healthy Chicken Enchiladas-9 Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato, Carrot, Onion Hash

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Truth be told, these started out in my mind as pancakes (clearly that didn’t happen!). I’m not really sure they are a “hash”, but I couldn’t think of a good name for them. They reminded me of the consistency of polenta, but I didn’t want to confuse anyone any more than I already was haha.

Whatever it ended up being still tasted really good, so it all worked out in the end 😉

I like that the carrots and onions add some additional nutrients/health benefits, and the eggs add a little protein! Blog Whole30 Paleo Sweet Potato Carrot Onion Mash-1 What you need… (would feed 4-6 people)

One Large Sweet Potato
1 medium onion
Handful of baby carrots (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 Teaspoon crushed garlic
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil (or oil of your choosing)

What to do…

Blog Whole30 Paleo Sweet Potato Carrot Onion Mash-3

Chop up your sweet potato, onion, and carrots, and toss them into a Cuisinart. Pulse until all finely diced. Maya LOVES this part, and it’s an easy way to get your child involved in the process 🙂
Whisk eggs and garlic together and add into the Cuisinart. Pulsing a few more times, and scraping down the edges to blend.
Salt and pepper to taste.
In a large frying pan, heat oil until nice and hot.
Pour mixture into pan (I had to do it in two batches). Wait until it gets nice and brown before flipping. I loved the crispy parts in there!
Honestly, I made 4 little pancakes the first batch and attempted to keep them in tact. They fell apart, so I just mixed them together in the end…I served it with fish and a variation of my staple Mango Avocado Salad, and it was yummy! I think it would be amazing with a fried egg and avocado too for brunch! Really, the possibilities are endless 😉

Enjoy! dit-elle-Lauren

Roasted Garlic

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Roasted Garlic is one of the easiest and elegant baked dishes! Slice top of garlic bulb, drizzle with some coconut oil, olive oil, or butter, bake in a hot oven for about an hour and voila. Perfectly tender garlic! The garlic will be soft and smooth so that you can spread it on toast or eat with veggies, add it to pasta, salad, or anything where you want some roasted garlic flavor. Enjoy!

roasted garlic blog (3) roasted garlic blog (2) roasted garlic blog (1)

Ingredients

One bulb of garlic, top sliced off (crosswise and you’ll slice some of the garlic cloves as well)
Oil or butter

Directions

Put oil or butter on garlic half, put top back on and bake for around one hour in a 400* hot oven
Serve hot or let cool and wrap in plastic or tinfoil and refrigerate

dit-elle-Esther

Avocado Brownies

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Avocado brownies? Why? Because they are moist, soft, rich and delicious! Almost paleo (minus the sugar) and very rich, I would not give these to kids but they are a nice grown-up treat! Cut into squares and eat warm or store in the freezer for a cool dark chocolate treat!

avocado brownie blog

Ingredients

2 large, ripe avocados, mashed until creamy (about 1 cup)
8 ounces semisweet or dark chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or grease baking dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together mashed avocados, melted chocolate and coconut oil until smooth and creamy. Whisk in sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Add vanilla.
In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Stir dry mixture into avocado mixture until just combined — be careful not to overmix! Spread batter into the prepared pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool and then cut into squares.

Modified slightly from the original and thanks PCC Natural Markets

dit-elle-Esther

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