Category Archives: Food

Roasted Ratatouille with Black Olives

This is a great variation to a traditional ratatouille dish. By roasting the vegetables, you get rich flavors and melding of ingredients. The black olives and fresh basil were a nice touch. I served it with polenta and the whole dish was super yummy!

Ingredients

4 tomatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 each red, yellow and green bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1/2 onion, thickly sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, plus additional for garnishing
1/2 cup pitted black olives

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425° F.
Place two rimmed baking sheets in the oven for 4 minutes to heat.
Meanwhile, toss the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and onions with olive oil and garlic in a large bowl. Very carefully spread the vegetables on the hot baking sheets. Roast, shaking the pan once or twice to turn vegetables, until tender and golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Toss roasted vegetables with balsamic vinegar, basil and olives. Serve warm with sprigs of fresh basil.

I served this with polenta and grated parmesan cheese!

Thanks PCC Natural Markets!

Kale Waldorf Salad

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This is a fantastic kale salad! You can make it in a few minutes with the right tools – I use a food processor and run the veggies through the slicer blade. And yes – you eat the kale raw and it is delicious! 🙂

Salad ingredients

1 large bunch curly green kale, rinsed
1-2 apples
2-3 stalks celery
1/2 cup nuts or pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raisins, dried appricots, figs, dates or cranberries, roughly chopped
1 cup red grapes, halved (or whole, to save time!)

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
Juice from a small lemon
1 tsp mustard
Salt/pepper to taste

Directions

Run the kale, apples and celery through the food processor on the slicer blade
Toss with nuts or seeds, raisins or grapes
Mix the dressing ingredients and toss with salad
Keeps very well covered in refrigerator for several days

Excellent with poached or fried eggs – paleo breakfast for champions!

Mini Pumpkin Cake with Maple Pumpkin Frosting and Caramel Glaze // Paleo

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This base of this cake is the same as the Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts with Maple Pumpkin Glaze that I posted the other week. In fact. I did the doughnuts in one pan, and then had a muffin top pan that I used to make these at the same time! It’s a two-fer recipe-WIN!!

How perfect would this be for a smash the cake session for a 1 year old?!! Ok, the photographer in me is coming out 😉

For a size reference. The cake is about 4″ in diameter 🙂 Ingredients

(for Cake-will make 6 doughnuts and 5 muffin tops/cake layers or 10 muffin top layers for multiple mini cakes!)

5 large eggs
½ cup Almond Milk (you could use cocunut milk too)
½ cup Pure Maple Syrup
½ cup Organic Pumpkin Puree
¼ cup Coconut Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 ¼ cup Coconut Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
¼ teaspoon Sea Salt (I did 20 grinds on my grinder :))
½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce

For the Frosting

1/4 Cup Coconut Cream (refridgerated)
1 Can Full Fat Cocunut Milk (refridgerated)
1 Tablespoons Organic Pumpkin
2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour
1/4 Cup Honey

Glaze

Maple Pumpkin Glaze (recipe here)

What to do

(For the Cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil the insides of your muffin top pan really well. I put coconut oil on a paper towel and rubbed it around.
Mix all the wet ingredients until eggs are fully blended
Add the dry ingredients, then mix until dough is formed
Fill muffin top tins to the top (the dough is dense and doesn’t rise very much)
Bake for 20 minutes. Let them cool for about 10 minutes, then pop them out and cool on cooling rack.
Once cool. Drizzle with glaze. Best eaten right after glazing. Or…skip the glaze and eat as is!

(For the Frosting)

Scoop out the hardened part of the full fat coconut milk and place in a bowl.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Whip everything with a high speed mixer for about a minute-scraping down the sides a few times as you go.
Put into a pastry bag and decorate as you want! Or slap it on with a spoon and knife and call it good 😉

Drizzle glaze and eat right away. Or…refrigerate frosted cake, and let sit for about 20 minutes. Then glaze and eat. Glaze will harden after about 15 minutes.

NOTE

The frosting isn’t as flavorful as I imagined it would be, and I honestly thought it would be a flop. UNTIL…I drizzled the glaze over everything. The cake base and the glaze are so flavorful, that the frosting being not as flavorful is perfect. The creamy texture of it is a nice balance to the dense cake, and creamy decadent glaze. Enjoy!

Roasted Broccoli

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This is a really yummy way to cook broccoli. I usually steam broccoli until it’s bright green and just tender (which is super quick and easy), but we seem to end up with leftovers. This took a few more steps, but there were no leftovers. A delicious crispy roasted broccoli recipe and such a great side dish for this time of year! Even the kids loved it. Never thought I’d say broccoli and yum in the same sentence, but there you go! 🙂

Ingredients

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions

Oven to 400*
In a large bowl, toss broccoli with olive oil and salt
Spread in single layer on baking sheet
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until broccoli is tender and crisp and starting to brown
Cool a bit and serve!

Heirloom Tomatoes

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Nothing says late summer like heirloom tomatoes! Now I realize it’s fall, especially with the rain in Seattle this week, but I found the last of the heirlooms of the season this weekend!

One of my favorite snacks used to be tomato sandwiches: fresh bread, mayo, slices of juicy heirloom tomatoes. Heirlooms in particular are rich in flavor and super delicious. I am strict GF now and eat few grains, but tomatoes are so good just on their own!

Ingredients

Tomatoes, sliced
Olive oil
Fresh basil, chopped (optional)
Sea salt (optional)

Directions

Drizzle olive oil on tomatoes and sprinkle with a little sea salt and fresh basil

Dark Chocolate Covered Figs with Sea Salt

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I recently posted about my fig tree. I finally had a chance to dip some of the figs in chocolate. Something about the combination of juicy ripe figs, dark sweet chocolate and sea salt.. amazing! These were SO yummy!

This fig had just been dipped. As soon as you set these in the fridge to cool the chocolate will harden and set with a matte finish. 🙂

Ingredients

12 figs, rinsed and dry
1 cup chocolate chips (I used 1/2 and 1/2 dark and sem-sweet chunks)
Sea salt for garnish

Directions

Put chocolate in a bowl and microwave for ~1 minute or until melted
Stir chocolate with a spoon to even out consistency
Dip figs in chocolate
Place on parchment paper covered cookie sheet and sprinkle some sea salt on
Set in fridge to cool
Enjoy! 🙂

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts with Maple Pumpkin Glaze // Paleo

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I’ve been dying to make baked pumpkin donuts. We finally did this last week, and they were so good! I couldn’t really find a recipe that matched up with the ingredients I had on hand (no time to go to the store ;)), so I kind of made it up as I went along using Against All Grain‘s “Baked Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts” as my guide and changed/added things here and there from what I had on hand and what I thought it needed.

These are baked instead of fried, are paleo, and have no refined sugar. No guilt, yet delicious-WIN!

I drizzled the Paleo Maple Pumpkin Sauce/Glaze that I posted yesterday over them, and…YUM!!!

Ingredients

5 large eggs
½ cup Almond Milk (you could use cocunut milk too)
½ cup Pure Maple Syrup
½ cup Organic Pumpkin Puree
¼ cup Coconut Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 ¼ cup Coconut Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
¼ teaspoon Sea Salt (I did 20 grinds on my grinder :))
½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
Maple Pumpkin Glaze

What to do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil the insides of your doughnut pan really well. I put coconut oil on a paper towel and rubbed it around.
Mix all the wet ingredients until eggs are fully blended
Add the dry ingredients, then mix until dough is formed
Fill doughnut tins to the top (mine didn’t rise very much)
Bake for 20 minutes. Let them cool for about 10 minutes, then pop them out and cool on cooling rack.
Once cool. Drizzle with glaze. Best eaten right after glazing. Or…skip the glaze and eat as is!

Having a cute assistant isn’t necessary, but it helps 🙂

The batter is pretty dense and only rises slightly, so you can fill the molds up to the top. And then…you wait 🙂 Enjoy!

Easy Paleo Maple Pumpkin Sauce

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I made this with the thought of drizzling it over some pumpkin doughnuts I made (recipe coming tomorrow!). After I made it though, I thought of a kazillion different things it would be great on. Hence…it’s getting it’s own post 🙂

And…it’s only 4 ingredients. Paleo, no added refined sugar, nut free, dairy free, and vegan. BUT…it’s delicious and you’ll want to put it on everything haha.Ingredients

2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
1 Tablespoon Pure Maple Syrup
1 Tablespoon Organic Pumpkin Puree
1 Tablespoon No Sugar Added Sun Butter (if you don’t have to worry about nut allergies, you could substitute any creamy nut butter)

What to do…

Combine all these ingredients and either microwave or heat over the cook top until all melted and combined to a creamy texture. Let it cool a little before you drizzle over whatever you are drizzling it over (doughnuts, cupcakes, banana ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal…the possibilities are endless) or dip fruit into it! It will harden after a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

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It’s mushroom season! White or Crimini Mushrooms work great for this recipe. This is a great paleo snack. Make them with or without cheese!

Ingredients

6 oz white or crimini mushrooms
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 lb mild Italian sausage, casings removed
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup red bell peppers, finely chopped
2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg
3 tsps. fresh Italian parsley, minced (or 2 tsp dried parsley)
Salt/pepper to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

Directions

Oven to 350*
Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth and remove stems
Finely chop just the stems
Place cleaned mushrooms, caps down on baking sheet and set aside
Heat butter and saute onion for 4-5 minutes or until golden
Add sausage to skillet and cook until browned
Add celery, red bell pepper, and finely chopped mushroom stems and cook for another 5-7 minutes
Add oregano and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes
Place meat mixture in food processor with egg and parsley and pulse until mixture is finely chopped
Spoon meat mixture into each mushroom cap, top with cheese (optional and bake for ~20-30 minutes until mushrooms are tender and filling is starting to brown
Enjoy! 🙂

Eggplant Mini Pizzas

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These delicious mini pizzas are made with a base of eggplant and topped with sauce, veggies, cheese and fresh basil. I added some fresh pesto as well and these were delicious! 🙂 Gluten free and grain free and almost paleo (omit cheese for paleo) these are a great alternative to traditional pizza! 🙂

Ingredients

1 globe eggplant, about 8 ounces and 9-10 inches long and sliced into 3/4″ slices
Salt for sprinkling on eggplant slices to draw water out
1-2 T olive oil, for brushing eggplant before roasting

Toppings

1 can (14.5 oz) Tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning or a combination of basil, oregano and thyme
1-2 mushrooms, finely diced
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/3 cup finely grated low-fat mozzarella blend
Fresh Basil Pesto – 1 tsp for each slice of eggplant (optional)
10 large basil leaves, cut in chiffonade strips (optional)

Instructions

Cut off both ends of the eggplant; then cut it into 3/4 inch thick slices (trying to make them the same thickness)
Put the eggplant pieces on a double layer of paper towels and sprinkle both sides generously with salt. Let the eggplant sit with the salt on it for about 30 minutes to draw out the liquid. (After the eggplant sits for 15 minutes, turn on the oven to 375F/190C.)
After 30 minutes, wipe the eggplant dry with a knife or paper towels (this also removes most of the salt.) Spray a roasting sheet with olive oil or non-stick spray, lay eggplant slices on, brush the tops of the eggplant with olive oil, and sprinkle with dried Italian seasoning. Roast the eggplant about 20-25 minutes.
Remove eggplant from the oven and turn oven setting to broil.
Spread a few tablespoons of sauce on the top of each eggplant slice, sprinkle with chopped veggies, cheese and some of the fresh basil.
Put pizzas under the broiler until the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
Serve hot, with a dollop of fresh basil pesto and some more fresh basil if using.

Inspired by, modified and simplified from the original – thanks KalynsKitchen!

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